E/CN.4/2002/24/Add.1 page 23 about 50,000 South Sea Islanders, mostly men, came to colonial Australia, largely Queensland, in the latter part of the Nineteenth century. Some were kidnapped from their islands in the Pacific and enslaved in a process known as “blackbirding”. Others came as indentured labourers, agreeing to work for a set time, consent being given by a thumbprint or mark on a contract that they had no real understanding of. South Sea Islanders were consigned to the sugar industry in the 1880s and their working conditions were generally very poor, and they were treated as inferiors by colonists. The Australian sugar industry was built on the muscle and the sweat of South Sea Islanders and without them there would have been no sugar industry in the nineteenth century. And many of them were deported at the turn of the century - 1906-1908 - in a quest for a white Australia, and those who remained were left for many decades on the fringes of white society. 48. Another activity of the Department of Multicultural Affairs of Queensland is its support for the Local Area Multicultural Partnership project (LAMP), which was established in 1988 as a key component of the government’s Multicultural Queensland Policy. It is designed as a partnership strategy between the state and the local governments. LAMP aims to promote positive community relations across the whole community and facilitate improved levels of access to services, planning and consultation by diverse interest groups. In this framework, many ethnic festivals are celebrated by all Queenslanders during the year as a way of promoting diversity. In July 2001, Peace Week was held, featuring workshops, concerts and a dance festival. Two publications reflect Australia’s cultural diversity: (a) A Fair Go. Portraits of the Australian Dream is a book published to celebrate the cultural and ethnic diversity of Australia through the voices and experiences of 50 outstanding immigrants who chose to live in Australia. It also celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of Australian citizenship in 1999; (b) An Atlas of the Australian People, produced for the Joint Commonwealth/State/ Territory Population, Immigration and Multicultural Research Programme, provides an analysis of the socio-economic characteristics of overseas-born, Australia-born, Aboriginal-born and the Torres Strait Islander population based on usual place of residence and data from the 1996 census of population and housing. 4. Criticism of the current policy of multiculturalism 49. Several analysts consider that the new multiculturalism agenda promoted by the Government actually conceals a profound rethinking of policies in this area and the abolition of the institutions which in the past were responsible for their implementation. Ms. Mary Kalantzis draws particular attention to: the reduction of immigration to a strict minimum and the curtailment of programmes for the integration of immigrants; the assimilation of asylum-seekers to migrants; the mandatory detention of persons arriving in Australia other than under the humanitarian immigration programme; the introduction of a two-year waiting period for legally admitted immigrants before they are eligible for social security; reduction in language learning grants; reduction in grants to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. The calling into question of the rights acquired by Aboriginals, the reorientation of the reconciliation