Political divisiveness + less talk, more action

This is from the Sydney Morning Herald, a reputable mainstream centrist newspaper not controlled by any media mogul:

Migrants welcome - unless they're from the Middle East
By Joseph Kerr
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/migrants-welcome--unless-theyre-from-the-middle-east/2005/10/02/1128191606652.html

...

"Since the Howard Government had made it harder for migrants to obtain welfare, stopped emphasising multiculturalism and focused on skilled migrants instead of family reunion, opposition to migration had fallen, even though overall numbers were increasing."

...

Tell you something? John Howard the supposed White Australia philistine has increased immigration, mainly it seems by shutting up and getting on with it.

The Australian people for the last 20 years have been more or less of one mind regarding immigration, but it seemed to me then and seems to me now that Keating managed to create bitter division where really there was none.

Where is Pauline Hanson? It seems now in retrospect that where Keating fanned her flames, Howard took the wind out of her sails, to mix a few metaphors.