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Victimless crime

A victimless crime is an illegal act that typically either directly involves only the perpetrator or occurs between consenting adults. Because it is consensual in nature, whether there involves a victim is a matter of debate. Definitions of victimless crimes vary in different parts of the world and different law systems, but usually include possession of any illegal contraband, recreational drug use, prostitution and prohibited sexual behavior between consenting adults, assisted suicide, and smuggling among other similar infractions.

In politics, a lobbyist or an activist might use the term victimless crime with the implication that the law in question should be abolished.

Victimless crimes are, in the harm principle of John Stuart Mill, "victimless" from a position that considers the individual as the sole sovereign, to the exclusion of more abstract bodies such as a community or a state against which criminal offenses may be directed. They may be considered offenses against the state rather than society.

Definition
According to the University of Chicago's vice scholar, Jim Leitzel, three characteristics can be used to identify whether a crime is a victimless crime: if the act is excessive, is indicative of a distinct pattern of behavior, and its adverse effects impact only the person who has engaged in it.

In theory, each polity determines its own laws so as to maximize the happiness of its citizens. But as knowledge, behavior and values change, laws in most countries lag greatly behind these social changes. Once a majority believes that the law is unnecessary, this law prohibits a victimless crime, until it is repealed.

Examples
Many victimless crimes begin because of a desire to obtain illegal products or services that are in high demand. Criminal penalties thus tend to limit the supply more than the demand, driving up the black-market price and creating monopoly profits for those criminals who remain in business. This "crime tariff" encourages the growth of sophisticated and well-organized criminal groups. Organized crime in turn tends to diversify into other areas of crime. Large profits provide ample funds for bribery of public officials, as well as capital for diversification.

The War on Drugs is a commonly cited example of prosecution of victimless crime. The reasoning behind this is that drug use does not directly harm other people. One argument is that the criminalization of drugs leads to highly inflated prices for drugs. For example, Bedau and Schur found in 1974 that "In England the pharmacy cost of heroin [was] 0.06 cents per grain. In the United States street price [was] $30–90 per grain." This inflation in price is believed to drive addicts to commit crimes such as theft and robbery, which are thought to be inherently damaging to society, in order to be able to purchase the drugs on which they are dependent.

In addition to the creation of a black market for drugs, the War on Drugs is argued by proponents of legalization to reduce the workforce by damaging the ability of those convicted to find work. It is reasoned that this reduction of the workforce is ultimately harmful to an economy reliant on labor. The number of drug arrests increases every year. In a poll taken by the Bureau of Justice Statistics between 1980 and 2009, "[over a] 30-year period...[arrest] rates for drug possession or use doubled for whites and tripled for blacks."

According to economist Walter Block, illegal immigration and emigration is a victimless crime from a libertarian perspective.

Vera Bergelson states that victimless crime comes in four main varieties:
 * 1) An act that does not harm others (suicide, drug use, unemployment)
 * 2) A transaction between consenting adults that does not harm others (assisted suicide, gambling, prostitution)
 * 3) An act whose consequences are borne by society at large (tax evasion, insider trading)
 * 4) Actions which are banned due to being considered immoral (homosexual sex, incest, flag burning)

Legalization of victimless acts
Many activities that were once considered crimes are no longer illegal in some countries, at least in part because of their status as victimless crimes.

One example is the British sturdy beggar laws that applied the death penalty to unemployment.

Two large categories of victimless crimes are sexual pleasure and recreational drug use (drug pleasure). On the first,
 * Homosexual sex has been legalized in many countries, the first one being France in 1791.
 * Other sexual matters considered victimless crimes and proposed for legalization include consensual adult incest and sexting by teenagers (considered child pornography).

Marijuana use is forbidden by law in Australia but is the most "widely used illicit drug" in the country, just as it is in countries such as the United States and New Zealand. Prohibition of alcohol in the United States, repealed in 1933, is considered a failed "social experiment" because many citizens ignored what it stipulated, turning to home-made spirits in lieu of licensed alcoholic drinks and resultantly making problems worse. In the United States today, tension over marijuana legalization is in response to the current marijuana prohibition in most states, but there are efforts to legalize cannabis in many countries such as the United States and Australia, as its legalization has the potential to greatly increase revenue.

Prostitution is legal in many countries, though usually restricted. The Netherlands legalized prostitution in 1999, and was one of the first countries to do so. As of 2012, however, it has been considering policy changes to severely restrict it.

Adultery (sexual acts between a married person and a person other than the spouse) and fornication (sexual acts between unmarried people) have not been prosecuted in the United States for over 50 years, although the laws against them, like those against sodomy, are still on the books in several states. However, because sodomy laws were struck down as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas, the laws against fornication would also be unconstitutional as was recognized by the Supreme Court of Virginia in Martin v. Ziherl.

Controversy
A major concern among opponents of legalizing victimless crimes is the degradation of societal moral standards, but punishing citizens for their choice to engage in victimless acts declared by the law to be immoral is difficult. While the United States's typical response to crimes is retroactive, the illegality of victimless crimes is a more preventative approach to justice and is highly controversial.

Controversies over victimless crime deal mostly with the question of whether a crime can ever actually be victimless. With relation to drugs and their pathway to consumption, the impact of the drug trade and liability laws on drug dealers, their families, and other unforeseen actors may end in victimization. Another act often considered a victimless crime is the possession of pornography, especially fictional child pornography. However, those who hold this position typically acknowledge the victimization that can occur to performers during production of non-fictional pornography.

In contrast, there is the argument for restraining legal powers to allow citizens the freedom to make victimless personal choices that may or may not be perceived as morally wrong. Preventative law, such as sex offender registries and anti-social behavior orders, blurs the distinction between criminal and civil law because victimless crime is typically difficult to categorize and criminalize. This is problematic because it causes a distortion of traditional procedures of the criminal and civil of aspects of law by enabling confusion and procedural interchangeability.

title: Victimless crime


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Consensual crime

A consensual crime is a public-order crime that involves more than one participant, all of whom give their consent as willing participants in an activity that is unlawful. Legislative bodies and interest groups sometimes rationalize the criminalization of consensual activity because they feel it offends cultural norms, or because one of the parties to the activity is considered a "victim" despite their informed consent.

Consensual crimes can be described as crimes in which the victim is the state, the judicial system, or society at large and so affect the general (sometimes ideological or cultural) interests of the system, such as common sexual morality. Victimless crimes, while similar, typically involve acts that do not involve multiple persons. Drug use is typically considered a victimless crime whereas the sale of drugs between two or more persons would be a consensual crime. The fact that no persons come forward to claim injury has essentially made the two terms interchangeable in common use.

Giving consent
When discussing consensual crime, one issue is whether all the participants are capable of giving genuine legal consent. This may not be the case if one or more of the participants are:
 * Animals
 * Children (normally measured as being under the legal age of consent)
 * Severely disabled
 * Severely mentally ill
 * Not fully informed about the issues involved
 * Suffering from mood swings
 * Acting under duress
 * Addicted
 * Intoxicated
 * Unconscious

Examples
The generally accepted definition of a consensual crime is a criminal act committed by two or more people, who consent to involvement, and does not involve any nonconsenting individuals. The following is a list of criminal acts in various societies at various times and in different societies, where the issue of liability hinges on consent or the lack of it:
 * Unlicensed prize fights and other criminal activities of a sporting nature where the players consent and the audience actively approves of what they see (in English law, see R v Coney).
 * Murder or incitement to murder where one person actively solicits others to terminate their life, or the life of another. For example, a driver may be trapped in a burning tanker full of gasoline and beg a passing armed police officer to shoot him rather than let him burn to death. These situations are distinguishable from soliciting the cessation of life-sustaining treatment so that the injured person may die a natural death, or leaving instructions not to resuscitate in the event of death. Note that, in English law under the Suicide Act 1961, suicide is not a crime committed by a person who fails to die. Thus, those who assist in a suicide attempt would be participants in a victimless crime because the would-be suicide cannot be tried. If the suicide succeeds, the legal issue is whether the assistants actively facilitated the death, or as doctors, nurses or carers, omitted to prevent natural death in circumstances where society believes they have no legal duty to take that preventive action. Some countries have characterised some of the possible situations as assisted suicide, while others make no judgment by imposing a separate label on conduct within the field of homicide. The issues may more generally relate to euthanasia where society debates whether, and in what circumstances, to terminate the lives of its citizens. Whichever philosophical route is followed, the laws will either criminalize any situation in which death results or permit death to be caused under controlled circumstances.
 * Sexual and non-sexual assaults involving the use or threatened use of violence which causes injuries and which would be criminal in all other situations (e.g. sadism and masochism). In cases of consensual nonconsent where a rape fantasy may be enacted by prior agreement, the offence of rape will not be committed because the "victim" has actually consented to sexual intercourse. The issue of consent in fact, or belief in the existence of consent, is fundamental to determining whether a rape has, or has not, been committed. In English law, for example, s74 Sexual Offences Act 2003 provides that consent is present "if he agrees by choice, and has the freedom and capacity to make that choice". If the "victim" is unconscious when penetration occurs, he would not be consenting, but this might not be rape if there is a subsisting sexual relationship, e.g. an agreement of consent for this scenario has been agreed upon by all parties beforehand. Note that, if the "victim" is physically injured, the causing of those injuries can still be charged as an assault whether there is actual consent or not. As a defense, offenders may plead that the other consented to the acts, and argue that any injuries sustained were accidental rather than intentional, leaving it to the jury to make a decision on their truthfulness.
 * See more fully the discussion in Dennis J. Baker, The Right Not to be Criminalized: Demarcating Criminal Law's Authority (Ashgate, 2011) where Dr Baker argues (in chapter 5) that there is a limit to consensual harm doing—but that the threshold of harm has to be reasonably high. Baker also asserts that it is only the harm-doer who should be criminalized; not the harm-receiver. He also points out there is a difference between risking harm to others (as those who engage in casual sex do when they know that there is a chance they might have HIV,) and deliberately exposing another to the risk of HIV, for example, where a person has been told he or she is a carrier and fails to inform his or her sexual partner.
 * Pornography, which can be illegal to produce, distribute or possess in some countries, even if the participants consented to the acts, and the acts themselves are legal (see: List of pornography laws by country).
 * Censorship laws, such as obscenity laws, may criminalise distribution of material even if it is only viewed by those who consent to viewing it.
 * Statutory rape where the underage participant(s) give actual consent, but the law-makers of the relevant jurisdiction have determined that people of that age are not legally capable of giving informed consent (not informed adequately about the activity).
 * Criminal transmission of HIV through consensual sexual activity.
 * Adultery and, in general, sex outside marriage or other established relationships where all persons immediately involved give consent.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Consensual crime


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905

Year 905 (CMV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Europe

 * Spring – King Berengar I of Italy arranges a truce with the Hungarians, on payment of a tribute. Grand Prince Árpád withdraws from Italy, and begins raiding in Bavaria.
 * Louis III, Holy Roman Emperor, launches another attempt to invade Italy. A Frankish expeditionary force, led by Adalbert I of Ivrea, captures Pavia, and Berengar I retires to Verona.
 * July 21 – Berengar I and a hired Hungarian army defeat the Frankish force at Verona. They take Louis III as prisoner and Berengar blinds him for breaking his oath.
 * Louis III returns to Provence. Unable to govern properly, he relinquishes the government of Lower Burgundy to his cousin Hugh, Count of Arles.
 * Sancho I succeeds Fortún I as King of Pamplona, and creates a Basque kingdom centered in Navarre (modern-day Spain).

Britain

 * Cadell ap Rhodri, king of Seisyllwg (Wales), makes his 25-year-old son Hywel ap Cadell ruler of Dyfed, having conquered that territory. Rhodri ap Hyfaidd, nominally king of Dyfed, is caught and executed, at Arwystli.
 * Norse settlers under the Viking warlord Ingimundr, revolt against the Mercians and try to capture the city of Chester. They are beaten off.

Arabian Empire

 * Summer – Caliph Al-Muktafi sends an Abbasid army (10,000 men) led by Muhammad ibn Sulayman to re-establish control over Syria and Egypt. The campaign is supported from the sea by a fleet from the frontier districts of Cilicia under Damian of Tarsus. He leads his ships up the Nile River, raids the coast, and intercepts the supplies for the Tulunids.
 * Ahmad ibn Kayghalagh, an Abbasid military officer, is appointed governor of the provinces of Damascus and Jordan. He is sent to confront a pro-Tulunid rebellion under Muhammad ibn Ali al-Khalanji. The latter manages to capture Fustat and proclaims the restoration of the Tulunids, while the local Abbasid commander withdraws to Alexandria.

Asia

 * China loses control over Annam (Northern Vietnam). The village notable Khuc Thua Du leads a rebellion against the Tang Dynasty. The Chinese garrison at Tong Binh (modern Hanoi) is destroyed. Khuc Thua Du declares Annam autonomous.
 * Abaoji, a Khitan tribal leader, leads 70,000 cavalry into Shanxi (Northern China) to create a 'brotherhood' with Li Keyong, a Shatuo governor (jiedushi) of the Tang Dynasty.
 * Emperor Daigo of Japan orders the selection of four court poets, led by Ki no Tsurayuki, to compile the Kokin Wakashū, an early anthology of Waka poetry.

Religion

 * Naum of Preslav, a Bulgarian missionary, founds a monastery on the shores of Lake Ohrid (modern-day North Macedonia), which later receives his name.

Births

 * Abu al-Misk Kafur, Muslim vizier (d. 968)
 * Al-Mustakfi, Abbasid caliph (d. 949)
 * Constantine VII, Byzantine emperor (d. 959)
 * Fulk II, Frankish nobleman (approximate date)
 * Godfrey, Frankish nobleman (approximate date)

Deaths

 * March 17 – Li Yu, Prince of De, prince of the Tang Dynasty
 * July 5
 * Cui Yuan, Chinese chancellor
 * Dugu Sun, Chinese chancellor
 * Lu Yi, Chinese chancellor (b. 847)
 * Pei Shu, Chinese chancellor (b. 841)
 * Wang Pu, Chinese chancellor
 * Du Hong, Chinese warlord
 * Gai Yu, Chinese warlord
 * Pei Zhi, Chinese chancellor
 * Tribhuvana Mahadevi III, Indian Queen Regnant
 * Rhodri ap Hyfaidd, king of Dyfed
 * Yahya ibn al-Qasim, Idrisid emir of Morocco
 * Yang Xingmi, Chinese governor (b. 852)

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White Australia policy

The White Australia policy was a set of racist policies that aimed to forbid people of non-European ethnic origins – especially Asians (primarily Chinese) and Pacific Islanders – from immigrating to Australia in order to create a "white/British" ideal focused on but not exclusively Anglo-Celtic peoples. Pre-Federation, the Australian colonies passed many anti-Chinese immigration laws mainly using Poll Taxes, with Federation in 1901 came discrimination based on the Dictation Test, which effectively gave power to immigration officials to racially discriminate without mentioning race. The policy also affected immigrants from Germany, Italy, and other European countries, especially in wartime. Governments progressively dismantled such policies between 1949 and 1973. At first these changes were due to international pressure and were token modifications designed to maintain a white Australia until the Whitlam government removed the last racial elements of Australia's immigration laws.

Competition in the gold fields between European and Chinese miners, and labour union opposition to the importation of Pacific Islanders (primarily South Sea Islanders) into the sugar plantations of Queensland, reinforced demands to eliminate or minimize low-wage immigration from Asia and the Pacific Islands. From the 1850s colonial governments imposed restrictions on Chinese arrivals, including poll taxes and tonnage restrictions. The colonial authorities levied a special tax on Chinese immigrants which other immigrants did not have to pay. Towards the end of the 19th century, labour unions pushed to stop Chinese immigrants from working in the furniture and market garden industries. Some laws were passed regarding the labelling of Chinese made furniture in Victoria and Western Australia but not in New South Wales. Chinese people dominated market gardening until their numbers declined as departures were not replaced.

Soon after Australia became a federation in January 1901, the federal government of Edmund Barton passed the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901; this was drafted by Alfred Deakin, who eventually became Australia's second prime minister. The passage of this bill marked the commencement of the White Australia Policy as Australian federal government policy. The key feature of this legislation was the dictation test, which was used to bar non-white immigrants from entry. Subsequent acts further strengthened the policy. These policies effectively gave British migrants preference over all others through the first half of the 20th century. During World War II, Prime Minister John Curtin reinforced the policy, saying "This country shall remain forever the home of the descendants of those people who came here in peace in order to establish in the South Seas an outpost of the British race."

Successive governments dismantled the policy in stages after the conclusion of World War II. The Menzies and Holt governments (1949–1967) began allowing non-British Europeans to immigrate to Australia, but only made token changes regarding Asians to create an appearance of non-discrimination. The Whitlam government passed laws to ensure that race would be totally disregarded as a component for immigration to Australia in 1973. In 1975, the Whitlam government passed the Racial Discrimination Act, which made racially-based selection criteria unlawful. In the decades since, Australia has maintained large-scale multi-ethnic immigration. , Australia's migration program allows people from any country to apply to immigrate to Australia, regardless of their nationality, ethnicity, culture, religion, or language, provided that they meet the criteria set out in law. Prior to 2011, the United Kingdom was the largest source country for immigration to Australia but, since then, China and India have provided the highest number of permanent migrants. The National Museum of Australia describes the White Australia Policy as openly racist, stating that it "existed because many white Australians feared that non-white immigrants would threaten Australian society".

Gold rush era
The discovery of gold in Australia in 1851 led to an influx of immigrants from all around the world. The colony of Victoria had a population of only 77,000 in 1851 and New South Wales just 200,000, but the huge influx of settlers spurred by the Australian gold rushes transformed the Australian colonies economically, politically and demographically. Over the next 20 years, 40,000 Chinese men but very few women, nearly all from the province of Guangdong (then known as Canton) but divided by language and dialect nevertheless, immigrated to the goldfields seeking prosperity.

Gold brought great wealth but also new social tensions. Multi-ethnic migrants came to Victoria and New South Wales in large numbers for the first time. Competition on the goldfields, particularly resentment among white miners towards the successes of Chinese miners, led to tensions between groups and eventually a series of significant racist protests and riots, including the Buckland riot in 1857 and the Lambing Flat riots between 1860 and 1861. Governor Hotham, on 16 November 1854, appointed a Royal Commission on Victorian goldfields problems and grievances. This led to restrictions being placed on Chinese immigration and residency taxes levied from Chinese residents in Victoria from 1855. New South Wales following suit with poll taxes and tonnage restrictions only in 1861. These restrictions remained in force only until 1867.

Support from the Australian Labour Movement

Melbourne Trades Hall was opened in 1859 with trades and labour councils and trades halls opening in all cities and most regional towns in the following forty years. During the 1880s, trade unions developed among shearers, miners, and stevedores (wharf workers), but soon spread to cover almost all blue-collar jobs. Shortages of labour led to high wages for a prosperous skilled working class, whose unions demanded and got an eight-hour day and other benefits unheard of in Europe.

Australia gained a reputation as "the working man's paradise". Some employers hired Chinese labourers, who were cheaper and more hard working. This produced a reaction which led eventually to all the colonies restricting Chinese immigration by 1888 and subsequently other Asian immigration. This was the genesis of the White Australia Policy. The "Australian compact", based around centralised industrial arbitration, a degree of government assistance particularly for primary industries, and White Australia, was to continue for many years before gradually dissolving in the second half of the 20th century.

The growth of the sugar industry in Queensland in the 1870s led to searching for labourers prepared to work in a tropical environment. During this time, thousands of "Kanakas" (Pacific Islanders) were brought into Australia as indentured workers. This and related practices of bringing in non-white labour to be cheaply employed was commonly termed "blackbirding" and refers to the recruitment of people, often through trickery and kidnappings, to work on plantations, particularly the sugar cane plantations of Queensland (Australia) and Fiji. In the 1870s and 1880s, the trade union movement began a series of protests against foreign labour. Their arguments were that Asians and Chinese took jobs away from white men, worked for "substandard" wages, lowered working conditions, were harder workers and refused unionisation.

Objections to these arguments came largely from wealthy land owners in rural areas. It was argued that without Asiatics to work in the tropical areas of the Northern Territory and Queensland, the area would have to be abandoned. Despite these objections to restricting immigration, between 1875 and 1888 all Australian colonies enacted legislation which excluded all further Chinese immigration. Asian immigrants already residing in the Australian colonies were not expelled and retained the same rights as their Anglo and southern compatriots, although they faced significant discrimination.

Agreements were made to further increase these restrictions in 1895 following an inter-colonial premiers' conference where all colonies agreed to extend entry restrictions to all non-white races. However, in attempting to enact this legislation, the governors of New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania reserved the bills, due to a treaty with Japan, and they did not become law. Instead, the Natal Act of 1897 was introduced, restricting "undesirable persons" who could not fill in a set form rather than by naming any specific race.

The British government in London was not pleased with legislation that discriminated against certain subjects of its empire, but decided not to disallow the laws that were passed. Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain explained in 1897:"We quite sympathize with the determination...of these colonies...that there should not be an influx of people alien in civilisation, alien in religion, alien in customs, whose influx, moreover, would seriously interfere with the legitimate rights of the existing labouring population."

From the Federation to World War II
In writing about the preoccupations of the Australian population in early Federation Australia before World War I in ANZAC to Amiens, the official historian of the war, Charles Bean, considered the White Australia Policy and defined it as follows:"'White Australia Policy' – a vehement effort to maintain a high Western standard of economy, society and culture (necessitating at that stage, however it might be camouflaged, the rigid exclusion of Oriental peoples)."

Federation Convention and Australia's first government
Immigration was a prominent topic of discussion in the lead up to the establishment of the Australian Federation. At the third session of the Australasian Federation Convention of 1898, Western Australian premier and future federal cabinet member John Forrest summarised the feeling of the Anglo-Saxon people in Australia:

The Barton government which came to power following the first elections of the Commonwealth parliament in 1901 was formed by the Protectionist Party with the support of the Australian Labor Party. The support of the Labor Party was contingent upon restricting non-white immigration, reflecting the attitudes of the Australian Workers Union and other labour organisations at the time, upon whose support the Labor Party was founded. The Australian historian James Jupp wrote that it was not true that the White Australia policy was exclusively a right-wing cause as the strongest support for the White Australia policy was on the left-side of Australian politics with both the trade unions and the Labour Party being the most militant opponents of Asian immigration well into the 1960s. Many Australians in the early 20th century tended to define being white as being the same as Australian with a majority of Australian states passing laws banning marriage and/or sex between whites and Aboriginals as part of an effort to maintain Australia's white character.

The first Parliament of Australia quickly moved to restrict immigration to maintain Australia's "British character", and the Pacific Island Labourers Bill and the Immigration Restriction Bill were passed shortly before parliament rose for its first Christmas recess. The colonial secretary in Britain had, however, made it clear that a race-based immigration policy would run "contrary to the general conceptions of equality which have ever been the guiding principle of British rule throughout the Empire". The Barton government therefore conceived of the "Education test", later called the "Dictation Test", which would allow the government, at the discretion of Customs Officers, to block unwanted migrants by forcing them to sit a test in "any European language". At the time, Anglo-Japanese relations were improving, and in 1902 Britain and Japan were to sign a defensive alliance directed implicitly against Russia. The White Australia policy led to vigorous protests from the Japanese government, and led to complaints from London that Australia was gratuitously straining relations with Japan, which Britain viewed as a prospective ally against Russia.

For the Labor Party this was a compromise of principles, so the main question for the debate on the Immigration Restriction Act just how openly racist to be, with the Labor Party preferring to openly bar "aboriginal natives of Asia, Africa, or the islands thereof". However in the end the preferred option of the British, the Education Test was passed. There was also opposition from Queensland and its sugar industry to the proposals of the Pacific Islanders Bill to exclude "Kanaka" labourers, however Barton argued that the practice was "veiled slavery" that could lead to a "negro problem" similar to that in the United States, and the bill was passed.

Immigration Restriction Act 1901
The new Federal Parliament, as one of its first pieces of legislation, passed the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 (1 Edward VII 17 1901) to "place certain restrictions on immigration and... for the removal... of prohibited immigrants". The act drew on similar legislation in the South African colony of Natal. Edmund Barton, the prime minister, argued in support of the bill with the following statement: "The doctrine of the equality of man was never intended to apply to the equality of the Englishman and the Chinaman."

The attorney general tasked with drafting the legislation was Alfred Deakin. Deakin supported Barton's position over that of the Labor Party in drafting the bill (the ALP wanted more direct methods of exclusion than the dictation test) and redacted the more vicious racism proposed for the text in his second reading of the Bill. In seeking to justify the policy, Deakin said he believed that the Japanese and Chinese might be a threat to the newly formed federation and it was this belief that led to legislation to ensure they would be kept out:"It is not the bad qualities, but the good qualities of these alien races that make them so dangerous to us. It is their inexhaustible energy, their power of applying themselves to new tasks, their endurance and low standard of living that make them such competitors."Early drafts of the act explicitly banned non-Europeans from migrating to Australia but objections from the British government, which feared that such a measure would offend British subjects in India and Britain's allies in Japan, caused the Barton government to remove this wording. Instead, a "dictation test" was introduced as a device for excluding unwanted immigrants. Immigration officials were given the power to exclude any person who failed to pass a 50-word dictation test. At first this was to be in any European language, but was later changed to include any language. The tests were given in such a way as to make them impossible to pass. If a person seemed likely to pass in English then a test in another language could be given. Attlee Hunt, the first administrator of the Immigration Restriction Act expressed it clearly in a 1903 memo to all Customs Officers: "It is not desirable that persons should be allowed to past the test, and before putting it to anyone the Officer should be satisfied that he will fail. If he is considered likely to pass the test if put in English, it should be applied in some other language of which he is ignorant."

The legislation found strong support in the new Australian Parliament, with arguments ranging from economic protection to outright racism. The Labor Party wanted to protect "white" jobs and pushed for more explicit restrictions. A few politicians spoke of the need to avoid hysterical treatment of the question. Member of Parliament Bruce Smith said he had "no desire to see low-class Indians, Chinamen or Japanese...swarming into this country... But there is obligation...not (to) unnecessarily offend the educated classes of those nations" Norman Cameron, a Free Trade Party member from Tasmania, expressed a rare note of dissension:

Outside parliament, Australia's first Catholic cardinal, Patrick Francis Moran was politically active and denounced anti-Chinese legislation as "un-Christian". The popular press mocked the Cardinal's position and the small European population of Australia generally supported the legislation and remained fearful of being overwhelmed by an influx of non-British migrants from the vastly different cultures of the highly populated nations to Australia's north.

The Immigration Restriction Act 1901 imposed a dictation test, in any European language, for any non-European migrant to Australia. The immigration officer (Customs until 1949) could choose any language, which effectively meant that the officer had the power to restrict the immigration of any individual. Further discriminatory legislation was the Postal and Telegraph Services Act 1901 (1 Edward VII 12 1901), which required any ship carrying mail to and from Australia to only have a white crew.

Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901
In 1901, there were approximately 9,800 Pacific Islander labourers in Queensland. In 1901, the Australian parliament passed the Pacific Island Labourers Act 1901 (1 Edward VII 16 1901). The result of these statutes was that 7,500 Pacific Islanders (called "Kanakas") working mostly on plantations in Queensland were deported, and entry into Australia by Pacific Islanders was prohibited after 1904. Those exempted from repatriation, along with a number of others who escaped deportation, remained in Australia to form the basis of what is today Australia's largest non-indigenous black ethnic group. Today, the descendants of those who remained are officially referred to as South Sea Islanders.

Exemption for Māori
Māori generally benefited from the same immigration and voting rights as European New Zealanders in Australia, making them a notable exception to the White Australia Policy. In 1902, with the Commonwealth Franchise Act, Māori residents in Australia were granted the right to vote, a right denied to Indigenous Australians. During that same period, their right to settle in Australia was facilitated by their shared status as British subjects. The Australian government granted equal rights to Māori only reluctantly. In 1905, the New Zealand government made a formal complaint about the exclusion of two Māori shearers, after which the Australian government changed its customs regulations to allow Māori to freely enter the country. Other Pacific Islanders were still subject to the White Australia Policy.

Paris Peace Conference
At the 1919 Paris Peace Conference following the First World War, Japan sought to include a racial equality clause in the Covenant of the League of Nations. Japanese policy reflected their desire to remove or to ease the immigration restrictions against Japanese (especially in the United States and Canada), which Japan regarded as a humiliation and affront to its prestige.

Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes was already concerned by the prospect of Japanese expansion in the Pacific. Australia, Japan and New Zealand had seized the German colonial empire's territories in the Pacific in the early stages of the war and Hughes was concerned to retain German New Guinea as vital to the defence of Australia. The treaty ultimately granted Australia a League of Nations Mandate over German New Guinea and Japan to the South Seas Mandate immediately to its north – thus bringing Australian and Japanese territory to a shared border – a situation altered only by Japan's Second World War invasion of New Guinea.

Hughes vehemently opposed Japan's racial equality proposition. Hughes recognised that such a clause would be a threat to White Australia and made it clear to British prime minister David Lloyd George that he would leave the conference if the clause was adopted. Hughes wrote in 1919: "No Govt. could live for a day in Australia if it tempered with a White Australia". Hughes wrote a note to Colonel Edward M. House of the American delegation: "It may be all right. But sooner than agree to it I would walk into the Seine-or the Folies Bergeres-with my clothes off". Hughes did offer the compromise that he would support the Racial Equality Clause provided that it did not affect immigration, an offer the Japanese rejected. When the proposal failed, Hughes reported in the Australian parliament: The White Australia is yours. You may do with it what you please, but at any rate, the soldiers have achieved the victory and my colleagues and I have brought that great principle back to you from the conference, as safe as it was on the day when it was first adopted.

World War II
Australian anxiety at the prospect of Japanese expansionism and war in the Pacific continued through the 1930s. Hughes, by then a minister in the United Australia Party's Lyons government, made a notable contribution to Australia's attitude towards immigration in a 1935 speech in which he argued that "Australia must... populate or perish."

Between the Great Depression starting in 1929 and the end of World War II in 1945, global conditions kept immigration to very low levels. At the start of the war, Prime Minister John Curtin (ALP) reinforced the message of the White Australia Policy by saying: "This country shall remain forever the home of the descendants of those people who came here in peace in order to establish in the South Seas an outpost of the British race."

Following the 1942 Fall of Singapore, Australians feared invasion by Imperial Japan. Australian cities were bombed by the Japanese airforce and Navy and Axis naval forces menaced Australian shipping, while the Royal Navy remained pre-occupied with the battles of the Atlantic and Mediterranean in the face of Nazi aggression in Europe. A Japanese invasion fleet headed for the Australian Territory of New Guinea was only halted by the intervention of the United States Navy in the Battle of the Coral Sea. Australia received thousands of refugees from territories falling to advancing Japanese forces – notably thousands of Chinese men and women as well as many Chinese seamen. There were also Dutch who fled the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Aboriginal Australians, Torres Strait Islanders, Papua New Guineans and Timorese served in the frontline of the defence of Australia, bringing Australia's racially discriminatory immigration and political rights policies into focus and wartime service gave many Indigenous Australians confidence in demanding their rights upon return to civilian life.

During the war, talk arose about the possibility of abolishing the policy. Hostility to this idea was one reason Australia never signed a treaty with China as it was feared the Chinese government would request the abolition of the White Australian policy as an ally. Spokesman for the Labor Party demanded that it be continued:"The policy of White Australia is now, perhaps, the most outstanding political characteristic of this country, and it has been accepted not only by those closely associated with it, but also by those who watched and studied 'this interesting experiment' from afar. Only those who favor the exploitation of a servile coloured race for greed of gain, and a few professional economists and benighted theologians, are now heard in serious criticism of a White Australia; but...they are encouraged by the ill-timed and inappropriate pronouncements of what are, after all, irresponsible officials."

Post-war immigration

Following the trauma of the Second World War, Australia's vulnerability during the Pacific War and its relatively small population compared to other nations led to policies summarised by the slogan, "populate or perish." According to author Lachlan Strahan, this was an ethnocentric slogan that in effect was an admonition to fill Australia with Europeans or else risk having it overrun by Asians. Immigration Minister Arthur Calwell stated in 1947 to critics of the government's mass immigration programme: "We have 25 years at most to populate this country before the yellow races are down on us."

During the war, many non-white refugees, Chinese but also including Malays, Indonesians and Filipinos, arrived in Australia, but Calwell controversially sought to have them all deported. Between 1945 and 1952, an Australian brigade served as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan. Until 1952, Australia did not permit Japanese women who had married Australian soldiers to enter Australia.

The Chifley government introduced the Aliens Deportation Act 1948, which had its weaknesses exposed by the High Court case O'Keefe v Calwell, and then passed the War-time Refugees Removal Act 1949 which gave the immigration minister sweeping powers of deportation. In 1948, Iranian Bahá'ís seeking to immigrate to Australia were classified as "Asiatic" by the policy and were denied entry. In 1949, Calwell's successor, Harold Holt, allowed the remaining 800 non-white refugees to apply for residency, and also allowed Japanese "war brides" to settle in Australia. In the meantime, Holt continued Calwell's policy of encouraging mass immigration from Europe, and Australia admitted large numbers of immigrants from mostly Italy, Poland, Greece and Yugoslavia, as well as its traditional source of immigration, the British Isles. The Australian Government promoted the assimilation of migrants to Australia from continental Europe, who were expected to become mainstream Australians. In 1947, Australian immigration law, which had until had been based on encouraging British immigration, was amended to take in more European immigration. The way that Australia took in a large number of European immigrants from countries that were previously considered undesirable weakened the case for Australia as a primarily "British" country and led to demands for the end of the White Australia policy. Given that the purpose of the White Australia policy was to preserve Australia as a British country, in an ironic twist, some of the strongest critics of the White Australia policy in the 1950s were liberal British professors serving at Australian universities. In 1959, the Immigration Reform Group was founded at Melbourne University to champion for the abolition of the policy.

Relaxation of restrictions

Australian policy began to shift towards significantly increasing immigration. Legislative changes over the next few decades continuously opened up immigration in Australia.

Labor Party Chifley government:

 * 1947: The Chifley Labor government relaxed the Immigration Restriction Act allowing non-Europeans the right to settle permanently in Australia for business reasons.

Liberal-Country Party Menzies government (1949–1966):

This was despite comments Menzies made in a discussion with radio 2UE's Stewart Lamb in 1955, where he appeared to be a defender of the White Australia Policy. Menzies: "I don't want to see reproduced in Australia the kind of problem they have in South Africa or in America or increasingly in Great Britain. I think it's been a very good policy and it's been of great value to us and most of the criticism of it that I've ever heard doesn't come from these oriental countries it comes from wandering Australians."
 * 1949: Immigration Minister Holt permitted 800 non-European refugees to stay, and Japanese war brides to be admitted.
 * 1950: External Affairs Minister Percy Spender instigated the Colombo Plan, under which students from Asian countries were admitted to study at Australian universities, though many more came as privately sponsored students.
 * 1957: Non-Europeans with 15 years' residence in Australia were allowed to become citizens.
 * 1958: Migration Act 1958 abolished the dictation test and introduced a simpler system for entry. Immigration Minister Sir Alick Downer announced that "distinguished and highly qualified Asians" might immigrate.
 * 1959: Australians were permitted to sponsor Asian spouses for citizenship.
 * 1964: Conditions of entry for people of non-European origin were relaxed.

Lamb: "For these years of course in the past Sir Robert you have been described as a racist."

Menzies: "Have I?"

Lamb: "I have read this, yes."

Menzies: "Well if I were not described as a racist I'd be the only public man who hasn't been."

In 1963, a paper, "Immigration: Control or Colour Bar?", was published by a group of students and academics at Melbourne University. It proposed eliminating the White Australia policy and was influential towards this end.

End of the White Australia Policy

Labor Party members Don Dunstan and Gough Whitlam set about removing the White Australia Policy from the Labor platform. Attempts in 1959 and 1961 failed, with Labor leader Arthur Calwell stating, "It would ruin the Party if we altered the immigration policy ... it was only cranks, long hairs, academics and do-gooders who wanted the change." However, Dunstan persisted in his efforts, and in 1965, the White Australia Policy was removed from the Labor platform at their national conference; Dunstan personally took credit for the change.

In 1966, the Holt Liberal government modified the White Australia policy in an effort to reduce the strong perception of Australia's anti-Asian racism. After a review of immigration policy in March 1966, Immigration Minister Hubert Opperman announced applications for migration would be accepted from well-qualified people "on the basis of their suitability as settlers, their ability to integrate readily and their possession of qualifications positively useful to Australia". At the same time, Holt's government decided to allow foreign non-whites to become permanent residents and citizens after five years (the same as for Europeans), and also removed discriminatory provisions in family reunification policies.

Most of these changes were cosmetic and the conservative government fearful of its white base never intended to bring in significant numbers of Asians or make immigrants racially neutral. Instead, the tried and true methods of official discretion were employed. The success of this method was revealed by a report on the Filipino community of Sydney in 1966, which revealed that its around 100 members were all 'white' looking, or in Filipino terms, 'mestizos' of presumably Spanish descent. "The Filipino Consul General stated that he was the only 'colored Filipino' in Sydney."

Nevertheless, the annual non-European settler arrivals rose from 746 in 1966 to 2,696 in 1971, while annual part-European settler arrivals rose from 1,498 to 6,054.

Leader of the Labor Party from 1960 to 1967 Arthur Calwell supported the White European Australia Policy. This is reflected by Calwell's comments in his 1972 memoirs, Be Just and Fear Not, in which he made it clear that he maintained his view that non-European people should not be allowed to settle in Australia. He wrote: "I am proud of my white skin, just as a Chinese is proud of his yellow skin, a Japanese of his brown skin, and the Indians of their various hues from black to coffee-coloured. Anybody who is not proud of his race is not a man at all. And any man who tries to stigmatise the Australian community as racist because they want to preserve this country for the white race is doing our nation great harm... I reject, in conscience, the idea that Australia should or ever can become a multi-racial society and survive."

The Whitlam Labor government brought about the comprehensive legal end of the White Australia policy in 1973 as prime minister. The Whitlam Labor government implemented a series of amendments preventing the enforcement of racial aspects of the immigration law. These amendments:
 * Legislated that all migrants, regardless of origin, be eligible to obtain citizenship after three years of permanent residence.
 * Ratified all international agreements relating to immigration and race.
 * Issued policy to totally disregard race as a factor in selecting migrants.

The Racial Discrimination Act 1975 made the use of racial criteria for any official purpose illegal.

It was not until the Fraser Liberal government's review of immigration law in 1978 that all selection of prospective migrants based on country of origin was entirely removed from official policy.

In 1981, the minister for immigration announced a special humanitarian assistance programme (SHP) for Iranians to seek refuge in Australia and by 1988 some 2,500 Bahá'ís and many more others had arrived in Australia through either SHP or refugee programmes. The last selective immigration policy, offering relocation assistance to British nationals, was finally removed in 1982.

Aftermath
Australia's contemporary immigration programme has two components: a programme for skilled and family migrants and a humanitarian programme for refugees and asylum seekers. By 2010, the post-war immigration programme had received more than 6.5 million migrants from every continent. The population tripled in the six decades to around 21 million in 2010, comprising people originating from 200 countries.

Legacy
Non-European and non-Christian immigration has increased substantially since the dismantling of the White Australia Policy.

Religious legacy
The policy had the effect of creating a population of overwhelmingly European, and largely Anglo-Celtic, descent. By not allowing immigration by people who had other ethnic origins, it effectively limited the immigration of practitioners of non-Christian faiths. Consequently, the White Australia Policy ensured that Christianity remained the religion which was adhered to by the majority of Australians. However, the percentage of Australians who are religious is dropping significantly each year.

Contemporary demographics
In 2019, Australia has the world's eighth-largest immigrant population, with immigrants accounting for 34% of the population, a higher proportion than in any other nation with a population of over 10 million. 162,417 permanent immigrants were admitted to Australia in 2017–18. Most immigrants are skilled, but the immigration quota includes categories for family members and refugees. In 2018 the five largest immigrant groups were those born in England (4%), Mainland China (2.6%), India (2.4%), New Zealand (2.3%) and the Philippines (1.1%).

In the 2016 Australian census, the most commonly nominated ancestries were:

 * English (36.1%)
 * Australian (33.5%)
 * Irish (11.0%)
 * Scottish (9.3%)
 * Chinese (5.6%)
 * Italian (4.6%)
 * German (4.5%)
 * Indian (2.8%)
 * Indigenous (2.8%)
 * Greek (1.8%)
 * Dutch (1.6%)
 * Filipino (1.4%)
 * Vietnamese (1.4%)
 * Lebanese (1%)

Political and social legacy
The story of Australia since the Second World War – and particularly since the final relegation of the White Australia Policy – has been one of ever-increasing ethnic and cultural diversity. Successive governments have sustained a large program of multi-ethnic immigration from all continents.

Discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity was legally permitted until 1975. Australia's new official policy on racial diversity is: "to build on our success as a culturally diverse, accepting and open society, united through a shared future". The White Australia policy continues to be mentioned in modern contexts, although it is generally only mentioned by politicians when denouncing their opposition. As Leader of the Opposition, John Howard argued for restricting Asian immigration in 1988 as part of his One Australia policy; in August 1988, he said: "I do believe that if it is – in the eyes of some in the community – that it's too great, it would be in our immediate-term interest and supporting of social cohesion if it [Asian immigration] were slowed down a little, so the capacity of the community to absorb it was greater."Howard later retracted and apologised for the remarks, and was returned to the leadership of the Liberal Party in 1995. The Howard government (1996–2007) in turn ran a large programme of non-discriminatory immigration and, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Asian countries became an increasingly important source of immigration over the decade from 1996 to 2006, with the proportion of migrants from Southern and Central Asian countries doubling from 7% to 14%. The proportion of immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa also increased. By 2005–06, China and India were the third and fourth largest sources of all migration (after New Zealand and the United Kingdom). In 2005–06, there were 180,000 permanent additions of migrants to Australia (72% more than the number in 1996–97). This figure included around 17,000 through the humanitarian programme, of whom Iraqis and Sudanese accounted for the largest portions. China became Australia's biggest source of migrants for the first time in 2009, surpassing New Zealand and Britain.

The Australian historian John Fitzgerald wrote that the White Australia policy, with its definition that to be Australian was to be white, had a powerful impact on forging the identity of the Chinese-Australian community as a marginalised community. Fitzgerald noted that even in the early 21st century, many Chinese-Australians who had been born and grew up in Australia automatically referred to white Australians as "the Australians" and to themselves as "the Chinese".

Historian Geoffrey Blainey achieved mainstream recognition for the anti-multiculturalist cause when he wrote that multiculturalism threatened to transform Australia into a "cluster of tribes". In his 1984 book All for Australia, Blainey criticised multiculturalism for tending to "emphasise the rights of ethnic minorities at the expense of the majority of Australians" and also for tending to be "anti-British", even though "people from the United Kingdom and Ireland form the dominant class of pre-war immigrants and the largest single group of post-war immigrants."

According to Blainey, such a policy, with its "emphasis on what is different and on the rights of the new minority rather than the old majority," was unnecessarily creating division and threatened national cohesion. He argued that "the evidence is clear that many multicultural societies have failed and that the human cost of the failure has been high" and warned that "we should think very carefully about the perils of converting Australia into a giant multicultural laboratory for the assumed benefit of the peoples of the world."

In one of his numerous criticisms of multiculturalism, Blainey wrote:

"For the millions of Australians who have no other nation to fall back upon, multiculturalism is almost an insult. It is divisive. It threatens social cohesion. It could, in the long-term, also endanger Australia's military security because it sets up enclaves which in a crisis could appeal to their own homelands for help."

Blainey remained a persistent critic of multiculturalism into the 1990s, denouncing multiculturalism as "morally, intellectually and economically ... a sham". The British historian Andrew Roberts, in his 2006 book A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900 praised the White Australia policy as being necessary to "protect Australia as an English-speaking nation". Roberts wrote the White Australia policy was the "right" immigration policy to pursue as he accused Asian immigrants of spreading infectious diseases and stated "Australia had the right (and duty) to protect herself" from Asian immigration. Views such as those expressed by Roberts have been in the minority. In 2009, the Australian historian Erin Ihde described the White Australia policy as "discredited" both within the historians' community and with the general public. Ihde wrote that the White Australia policy remains a difficult subject within the Australian popular memory of the past as it was the fear of the so-called "Yellow Peril" in the form of Asian immigration and the possibility of Asian nations such as China and Japan posing a military threat to Australia that played a major role in the formation of the Australian federation in 1901. Ihde argued the White Australia policy was not an aberration in Australian history, nor was it marginal, making it problematic to integrate into a positive view of Australian history.

Despite the overall success and generally bipartisan support for Australia's multi-ethnic immigration programme, there remain voices of opposition to immigration within the Australian electorate. At its peak, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party received 9% of the national vote at the 1998 Federal Election.

Hanson was widely accused of trying to take Australia back to the days of the White Australia policy, particularly through reference to Arthur Calwell, one of the policy's strongest supporters. In her maiden address to the Australian Parliament following the 1996 election, Hanson said:"I and most Australians want our immigration policy radically reviewed and that of multiculturalism abolished. I believe we are in danger of being swamped by Asians. Between 1984 and 1995, 40 per cent of all migrants coming into this country were of Asian origin. They have their own culture and religion, form ghettos and do not assimilate."Hanson's remarks generated wide interest in the media both nationally and internationally, but she herself did not retain her seat in Parliament at the 1998 election or subsequent 2001 and 2004 federal elections. Hanson also failed to win election in the 2003 and 2011 New South Wales state elections. In May 2007, Hanson, with her new Pauline's United Australia Party, continued her call for a freeze on immigration, arguing that African migrants carried disease into Australia. Hanson returned to politics in 2014 and ran in the Queensland election. She won a Queensland senate seat in the 2016 election, and retained it again in 2022.

Topics related to racism and immigration in Australia are still regularly connected by the media to the White Australia policy. Some examples of issues and events where this connection has been made include: reconciliation with Indigenous Australians; mandatory detention and the "Pacific Solution"; the 2005 Cronulla riots, and the 2009 attacks on Indians in Australia. Former opposition Labor party leader Mark Latham, in his book The Latham Diaries, described the ANZUS alliance as a legacy of the White Australia policy.

In 2007, the Howard government proposed an Australian Citizenship Test intended "to get that balance between diversity and integration correct in future, particularly as we now draw people from so many different countries and so many different cultures". The draft proposal contained a pamphlet introducing Australian history, Culture and Democracy. Migrants were to be required to correctly answer at least 12 out of 20 questions on such topics in a citizenship quiz. Migrants would also be required to demonstrate an adequate level of understanding of the English language. The Rudd government reviewed and then implemented the proposal in 2009.

On 14 August 2018, Senator Fraser Anning delivered his maiden speech to the Senate. In it, he called for a plebiscite to reintroduce the White Australia Policy, especially with regard to excluding Muslims. He was criticised by politicians from the left and the right, in particular for his choice of words ("final solution"). He was again criticised by politicians across the board after blaming Muslim immigration to New Zealand for the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks.

title: White Australia policy


text:
River Severn

The River Severn (Afon Hafren, ), at 220 mi long, is the longest river in Great Britain. It is also the river with the most voluminous flow of water by far in all of England and Wales, with an average flow rate of 107 m3/s at Apperley, Gloucestershire. It rises in the Cambrian Mountains in mid Wales, at an altitude of 2001 ft, on the Plynlimon massif, which lies close to the Ceredigion/Powys border near Llanidloes. The river then flows through Shropshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. The county towns of Shrewsbury, Worcester and Gloucester lie on its course.

The Severn's major tributaries are the Vyrnwy, the Tern, the Teme, the Warwickshire Avon, and the Worcestershire Stour.

By convention, the River Severn is usually considered to end, and the Severn Estuary to begin, after the Second Severn Crossing, between Severn Beach in South Gloucestershire and Sudbrook, Monmouthshire. The total area of the Estuary's drainage basin is 4409 sqmi. That figure excludes the area of the River Wye and the Bristol Avon, both of which flow into the Severn Estuary. The Estuary discharges into the Bristol Channel, which opens into the Celtic Sea and from there into the Atlantic Ocean.

Romano-British name
The name Severn is thought to derive from a British word *sabrinā, possibly from an older form *samarosina, meaning "land of summertime fallow". During the Roman occupation the Severn was known by the Romano-British Latin name Sabrina.

Name legacy
Milton's 1634 masque Comus makes Sabrina a nymph who had drowned in the river. In Shrewsbury, there is now a statue of Sabrina in the Dingle Gardens at the Quarry, as well as a metal sculpture erected in 2013.

There is a different deity associated with the Severn Estuary: Nodens, represented as mounted on a seahorse, riding on the crest of the Severn bore.

Welsh name
The Welsh form of the name is Afon Hafren first recorded in the 12th-century Historia Regum Britanniae. The Old Welsh form of the name Habren was recorded c.800.

Documented history of the Welsh name:
 * Habren c.800.
 * Hauren c.1170.
 * hahafrenn, 12th century.
 * Dyffrin hawren, mid 13th century.

It is possible that the Welsh name was influenced by the Hwicce people who lived along the banks of the River Severn, and by seafarers from Scandinavia. The name element hau (also haw, haha) might derive from Proto-Germanic *hauhaz ("high"), possibly from Old Norse hár or Old Saxon hōh.

The toponym for Habren might be:
 * High prow of a ship.

 * High prow of a wave.

English name
The English form of the name ("Severn") is derived from Old English Sæfern. However the name is also influenced by English dialect seave ("sedge, rush") hence the origin of the name Seaverne recorded in the 16th–17th century.

Common club-rush (Schoenoplectus lacustris) prefers to grow in shallow water such as that found in ponds, streams and river margins. The Hwicce people used the club-rush growing along the banks of the River Severn to make wicker baskets.

Name history
The name history shows evidence of Scandinavian influence:

Viking age
In the Summer of 893 a coalition of all of the Danish armies in England made a determined attempt to annex western Mercia to Danish Mercia. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (ASC) recorded an account of the Battle of Buttington, and included this description of the route taken by the Danes: "... Foron þa up be Temese oþþæt hie gedydon æt Sæferne, þa up be Sæferne.

Seafarer
The name Sæfern might be related to:
 * 1) The Sea.
 * 2) Middle English faren – "travel".
 * 3) Old Norse sær – " the sea, ocean  ".
 * 4) Old Norse fara – " to fare, to travel ".
 * 5) The Old Norse personal name Sæfari – " Seafarer ".

The Old Norse name Sæfari ("Seafarer") lives on as the name of the Dalvík – Grímsey ferry in Iceland.

Geography and geology
The River Severn's current form is the result of a multi-million year history and complex underlying geology but is in part the result of glaciation during the last ice age in the Pleistocene epoch of the Quaternary period. Within Wales, the river runs through a landscape formed in Ordovician and Silurian rocks. As it enters the Shropshire Plain, these lower Palaeozoic rocks are replaced by Permian and Triassic age strata though largely unseen beneath a thick cover of Quaternary deposits. Certain stretches also run across Carboniferous strata as at Shrewsbury and for much of the distance between Ironbridge and Bewdley. Permo-Triassic bedrock then continues until the Severn moves intermittently onto the Jurassic outcrop from Tewkesbury southwards. Only in the SSW-NNE aligned valley either side of Welshpool is there any obvious relationship to geological structure; the valley follows the lines of the Severn Valley Faults. For much of the rest of its course it runs directly across geological structures.

It was first proposed in the 1900s that the former northerly course of the upper Severn was disrupted during the course of the ice age by the blocking of its access to the Irish Sea through Cheshire causing a large lake to develop across much of Shropshire. It was supposed that this lake, named as Lake Lapworth, overtopped its southern margin and rapidly cut down to form the Ironbridge Gorge providing the Severn with a southerly exit to the sea as remains the case today. An alternative theory which has gained favour in recent years does away with Lake Lapworth, suggesting that the upper Severn flowed beneath the icesheet in a bedrock hollow known as the Severn Trench eastwards from Melverley to the Ironbridge Gorge. It is possible that the trench and gorge were cut over successive ice ages.

Tributary rivers
Over its length, there are a large number of tributaries, but the three largest feeding the non-tidal river are the Vyrnwy, the Teme and the Warwickshire Avon. The Wye, the Bristol Avon and the Usk all flow into the estuarine section of the Severn. The main tributaries are described in sequence below.

The first tributary of significance is the Afon Dulas, joining from the south immediately upstream of Llanidloes, with the Afon Clywedog joining in the town. The Afon Cerist, bolstered by the Afon Trannon, and the Afon Carno join as left bank tributaries immediately upstream of Caersws. Mochdre Brook enters on the western edge of Newtown, followed by the Bechan Brook just northeast of the town. The Mule enters at Abermule, and the River Rhiw east of Berriew, followed shortly by the Camlad which rises above Churchstoke and by the Luggy Brook. The left bank Sylfaen Brook enters at Welshpool, and the Bele Brook via the New Cut east of Arddlin.

The River Vyrnwy, which begins at Lake Vyrnwy, flows eastwards through Powys, gathering the waters of the Banwy, Cain and Tanat, before forming part of the border between England and Wales, and joining the Severn near Melverley, Shropshire. The River Perry joins on the left bank above Shrewsbury, while both the Rad Brook and the Rea Brook, which flows northeast from its source at Marton Pool near the Welsh border, join the Severn within the town. The left bank tributary, the River Tern, after flowing south from Market Drayton and being joined by the River Meese and the River Roden, meets the Severn at Attingham Park.

The River Worfe joins the Severn's left bank just above Bridgnorth, before the Mor, Borle and Dowles brooks join on the opposite bank over the next few miles, the last-named draining Wyre Forest. The River Stour rises in the north of Worcestershire in the Clent Hills, near St Kenelm's Church at Romsley. It flows north into the adjacent West Midlands at Halesowen. It then flows westwards through Cradley Heath and Stourbridge, where it leaves the Black Country. It is joined by the Smestow Brook at Prestwood before it winds around southwards to Kinver, and then flows back into Worcestershire. It then passes through Wolverley, Kidderminster and Wilden to its confluence with the Severn at Stourport-on-Severn. The Dick Brook, Shrawley Brook and Grimley Brook enter on the right bank before the River Salwarpe, which runs through Droitwich enters on the opposite (east) bank.

The River Teme flows eastwards from its source in Mid Wales, straddling the border between Shropshire and Herefordshire; it is joined by the River Onny, River Corve and River Rea before it finally joins the Severn on the southern edge of Worcester. Bushley Brook joins just upstream of the confluence of the Warwickshire Avon with the Severn at Tewkesbury. One of several Avons, this one flows west through Rugby, Warwick and Stratford-upon-Avon. It is then joined by its tributary the River Arrow, before joining the Severn. The rivers Swilgate and Chelt also join the Severn's left bank, as do the Hatherley and Horsbere brooks, before it reaches Gloucester. The River Leadon enters the tidal West Channel of the Severn at Over, immediately west of Gloucester. The River Frome is the second significant tributary to enter the tidal stretch of the Severn, doing so at Framilode. Bideford Brook drains the easternmost part of the Forest of Dean, entering the Severn estuary east of Blakeney. On the opposite (southeast) bank the flow of the River Cam is usurped by the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal before reaching the estuary. The Lyd enters the west bank of the estuary at Lydney Harbour, opposite the place where Berkeley Pill carries the waters of the Little Avon River into it. The final tributary before the Severn Bridge is the collection of streams which enter via Oldbury Pill.

The River Wye, from its source in Plynlimon in Wales (2 mi from the source of the Severn), flows generally south east through the Welsh towns of Rhayader and Builth Wells. It enters Herefordshire, flows through Hereford, and is shortly afterwards joined by the River Lugg, before flowing through Ross-on-Wye and Monmouth, and then southwards where it forms part of the border between England (Forest of Dean) and Wales. The Wye flows into the Severn estuary south of the town of Chepstow.

The Mounton Brook and Nedern Brooks enter on the Monmouthshire side between the two motorway crossings. The Port of Bristol is on the Severn Estuary, where another River Avon flows into it through the Avon Gorge. The River Usk and the Ebbw River flow into the Severn Estuary at Uskmouth just south of Newport.

Settlements

The river's course within Wales lies wholly within the county of Powys. The first town it encounters downstream of its source is Llanidloes where it is joined by the Dulas and the Clywedog. It flows past the villages of Llandinam and Caersws before reaching Newtown. It then runs by Abermule and Cilcewydd before flowing beside Welshpool, the last town on its course in Wales.

Entering Shropshire and England, a few villages such as Shrawardine sit back from the river as it meanders eastwards towards the county town of Shrewsbury. More villages, notably Atcham, Wroxeter and Cressage sit beside the river as it turns southeast and heads for the gorge at Ironbridge before turning south for Bridgnorth. The Shropshire villages of Quatford and Hampton Loade and the Worcestershire village of Upper Arley follow, before the Severn runs through Bewdley and Stourport-on-Severn in quick succession. The river then passes the villages of Astley Burf and Holt Fleet before entry into the city of Worcester. Several villages sit back from the river before it runs by Upton-upon-Severn and then enters Gloucestershire as it joins with the Warwickshire Avon outside of Tewkesbury. A few more villages intervene, notable amongst which is Maisemore before the river enters the city of Gloucester from which point it is tidal.

Several more villages sit beside the tidal stretch. Amongst these are Elmore, Epney and Framilode on the east bank and Minsterworth, Broadoak and Newnham on Severn on the west bank.

Bridges

The Severn is bridged at many places, and many of these bridges are notable in their own right. The Iron Bridge at Ironbridge was the world's first iron arch bridge. Several other bridges crossing the river were designed and built by the engineer Thomas Telford.

The two major road bridges of the Severn crossing link south eastern Wales with the southern counties of England.
 * Severn Bridge – opened in 1966 carrying what is now the M48
 * Second Severn Crossing – opened in 1996 carrying the M4 motorway

Prior to the construction of the first bridge in 1966, the channel was crossed by the Aust Ferry.

Other notable bridges include:

 * Buttington Bridge – built in 1872
 * Montford Bridge – Thomas Telford's first ever bridge design, built between 1790 and 1792
 * Welsh Bridge – in the centre of Shrewsbury, built in 1795 at a cost of £8,000
 * English Bridge – also in Shrewsbury, designed and completed in 1774 by John Gwynn
 * Atcham Bridges – the old one built in 1774, while the newer one in 1929 carries the B4380
 * Albert Edward Bridge – in Coalbrookdale, a railway bridge opened in 1864
 * Coalport Bridge – like its neighbour Ironbridge, is made of cast iron, built in 1818
 * Victoria Bridge – designed by John Fowler, opened in 1862. Still in use by the Severn Valley Railway
 * Bewdley Bridge – designed by Telford, completed in 1798
 * Holt Fleet Bridge – in Worcestershire and designed by Telford and opened in 1828
 * Upton Town Bridge – built in 1940, the only bridge to cross between Worcester and Tewkesbury
 * Queenshill Viaduct – carries the M50 between Junction 1 and 2
 * Mythe Bridge – designed by Telford and opened in April 1826, located in Tewkesbury
 * Haw Bridge – a steel beam bridge, west of Tewkesbury
 * Maisemore Bridge – carries the A417 and is a single masonry arch, dating back to 1230.
 * Over Bridge – single masonry arch, built by Telford
 * Over Rail Bridge – carrying the Gloucester to Newport Line, currently the last bridge before the Severn Crossings, which is 30 mi downstream
 * Severn Rail Bridge – linking the Forest of Dean to Sharpness docks, partially collapsed in 1960 and was dismantled in 1967–70

Rail
The Severn Tunnel, completed in 1886 by John Hawkshaw on behalf of the Great Western Railway, lies near the Second Severn Crossing road bridge, and carries the South Wales Main Line section of the Great Western Main Line under the channel. The original line built before the Severn Tunnel was the South Wales Railway from Gloucester, that followed the estuary alongside present day stations of Lydney, Chepstow, Caldicot and Severn Tunnel Junction to Newport.

Cars could also be transported through the Severn Tunnel. In the 1950s three trains a day made round trips between Severn Tunnel Junction and Pilning. The vehicles were loaded onto open flat bed carriages and pulled by a small pannier tank locomotive, although sometimes they were joined to a scheduled passenger train. The prudent owner paid to cover the vehicle with a sheet, as sparks often flew when the steam locomotive tackled the slope leading to the tunnel exit. A railway coach was provided for passengers and drivers. Reservations could be made and the fee for the car was about thirty shillings (£1.50) in the early 1950s.

Disasters
There have been many disasters on the Severn, which have claimed perhaps 300 lives, depending on sources, especially during the 20th century. The Severn Railway Bridge was badly damaged by the collision of two river barges in 1960, which led to its demolition in 1970. Five crew members of both the Arkendale H and Wastdale H died in the accident. There have been frequent floods in Shrewsbury, Bewdley and elsewhere. More recently the river flooded during the 2007 United Kingdom floods and the 2019–20 United Kingdom floods.

Navigation
There is a public right of navigation between Pool Quay, near Welshpool, and Stourport. However this stretch of the river has little traffic, other than small boats, canoes and some tour boats in Shrewsbury. Below Stourport, where the river is more navigable for larger craft, users must obtain permits from the Canal & River Trust, who are the navigation authority. During spring freshet the river can be closed to navigation.

At Upper Parting above Gloucester, the river divides into two, and flows either side of Alney Island to Lower Parting. The West Channel is no longer navigable. The East Channel is navigable as far as Gloucester Docks, from where the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal provides a navigable channel south. Between the docks and Lower Parting Llanthony Weir marks the Normal Tidal Limit (NTL) of the East Channel of the river.

In the tidal section of the river below Gloucester, the Gloucester Harbour Trustees are the competent harbour authority. The Trustees maintain navigation lights at various points along the river (including on Chapel Rock and Lyde Rock, and leading lights at Slime Road, Sheperdine and Berkeley Pill).

Locks
There are locks on the lower Severn to enable seagoing boats to reach as far as Stourport. The most northerly lock is at Lincomb, about 1 mi downstream from Stourport.

Associated canals
The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, (both narrow beam) and the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal join the Severn at Stourport, Worcester and Gloucester respectively. The Droitwich Barge Canal, a broad beam canal, joins the Severn at Hawford, near to the River Salwarpe, and connects to the Droitwich Canal (narrow beam) in the name town, which then forms a link to the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. The two Droitwich canals re-opened in 2010 after major restoration.

The Gloucester and Sharpness Canal connects the Severn at Gloucester to the Severn at Sharpness, avoiding a stretch of the tidal river which is dangerous to navigate. The Stroudwater Navigation used to join the tidal Severn at Framilode, but since the 1920s has connected to the Severn only via the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal.

The Lydney Canal is a short canal which connects Lydney to the river.

The section of the river between Tewkesbury and Worcester forms part of the Avon Ring, a 109 mi circular cruising route which includes 129 locks and covers parts of three other waterways.

The tidal river
Paddle steamers were operated in the Severn Estuary from the mid 19th century to the late 1970s by P & A Campbell of Bristol. The vessels, Cardiff Queen, Bristol Queen, Glen Usk, Glen Gower and Britannia all operated on this route in the 1950s and 1960s. Since 1986 Waverley Excursions has operated occasional sailings to Sharpness and Lydney by the MV Balmoral.

A number of ferries were also operated on the tidal river, for example at New Passage, Purton and Arlingham. The last ferry was the Aust Ferry, which closed in 1966 when the Severn Bridge opened. One of the Aust ferries, Severn Princess, is still in Chepstow although largely derelict.

The upper river
Currently the only passenger boat operating between Shrewsbury & Gloucester is the 'River King' vessel that operates in Stourport. Worcester River Cruises used to run boat trips up and down the river between Tewkesbury and Stourport, operating the boats The Pride of the Midlands and The Earl Grosvenor.

The Cathedral Ferry, a foot passenger ferry, also operates on summer weekends from the steps of Worcester Cathedral.

In Shropshire the Hampton Loade Ferry used to operate across the river but has been closed since 2016.

In Shrewsbury, boat trips around the loop of the town centre are at present provided by the Sabrina and depart from Victoria Quay near the Welsh Bridge during the summer.

Severn Estuary
The river becomes tidal close to Maisemore, on the West Channel just north of Gloucester, and at Llanthony Weir on the East Channel. However, particularly high tides may overtop the weir at Tewkesbury, and even the foot of the weir at Worcester may experience a rise in water level of 1 ft or so.

The tidal river downstream from Gloucester is sometimes referred to as the Severn Estuary, but the river is usually considered to become the Severn Estuary after the Second Severn Crossing near Severn Beach, South Gloucestershire (the point to which the jurisdiction of the Gloucester Harbour Trustees extends), or at Aust, the site of the Severn Bridge.

The Severn Estuary extends to a line from Lavernock Point (south of Cardiff) to Sand Point near Weston-super-Mare. West of this line is the Bristol Channel. In the Severn Estuary (or the Bristol Channel in the last two cases, depending where the boundary is drawn) are the rocky islands called Denny Island, Steep Holm and Flat Holm.

The estuary is about 2 mi wide at Aust, and about 9 mi wide between Cardiff and Weston-super-Mare.

Severn Sea
Until Tudor times the Bristol Channel was known as the Severn Sea, and it is still known as this in both Welsh and Cornish (Môr Hafren and Mor Havren respectively, with môr meaning sea).

Severn bore
A phenomenon associated with the lower reaches of the Severn is the tidal bore, which forms upstream of the port of Sharpness.

It is frequently asserted that the river's estuary, which empties into the Bristol Channel, has the second largest tidal range in the world—48 ft, exceeded only by the Bay of Fundy. However a tidal range greater than that of the Severn is recorded from the lesser known Ungava Bay in Canada. During the highest tides, the rising water is funnelled up the Severn estuary into a wave that travels rapidly upstream against the river current. The largest bores occur in spring, but smaller ones can be seen throughout the year. The bore is accompanied by a rapid rise in water level which continues for about one and a half hours after the bore has passed.

Industry
A 3 mi stretch of the River Severn in Shropshire, is known as Ironbridge Gorge. It was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986. Its historic importance is due to its role as the centre of the iron industry in the early stages of the Industrial Revolution. The gorge and the village of Ironbridge get their name from the Iron Bridge across the Severn, built in 1779, which was the first cast-iron arch bridge ever constructed.

Two nuclear power stations are situated on the river, in the area of South Gloucestershire. Oldbury Nuclear Power Station and Berkeley Nuclear Power Station both made use of the River Severn as part of the power generation and nuclear cooling processes. Both are now decommissioned.

Wildlife
The sides of the estuary are also important feeding grounds for waders, notably at the Bridgwater Bay National Nature Reserve and the Slimbridge Wildfowl Trust. River shingle habitat can also be found on the lower estuary, notable for its population of the endangered 5-spot Ladybird.

Before the installation of the weirs, sturgeon and grey seals would regularly reach as far upstream as Worcester. In the winter of 2011/2012 a female grey seal spent several weeks on the river in Bewdley. The same individual was seen at and around Worcester from October to December 2013.

The river forms part of the Severn-Trent flyway, a route used by migratory birds to cross Great Britain.

Literary and musical allusions
The River Severn is named several times in A. E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad (1896): "It dawns in Asia, tombstones show/And Shropshire names are read;/And the Nile spills his overflow/Beside the Severn's dead" ("1887"); "Severn stream" ("The Welsh Marches"); and "Severn shore" ("Westward from the high-hilled plain...").

In Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, Henry "Hotspur" Percy recalls the valour of Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March in a long battle against Welshman Owain Glyndŵr upon the banks of the Severn, claiming the flooding Severn "affrighted with [the warriors'] bloody looks ran fearfully among the trembling reeds and hid his crisp head in the hollow bank, bloodstained with these valiant combatants."

The Severn was the inspiration for a number of works by Gloucestershire composer Ivor Gurney, including the songs "Western Sailors" (1925) and "Severn Meadows" (1917).

Gloucestershire writer and poet Brian Waters published Severn Tide with J. M. Dent in 1947 and followed it with Severn Stream in 1949. With anecdotal stories about his travels, both books tell of the lives of the people who lived and worked on and along the river, describing the landscape with a poet's eye. Waters links Nodens with the Severn Bore and the association of the Celtic deity with the river is explored at length by Rogers.

Several 20th-century English composers wrote works inspired by the river. Gerald Finzi (1901–1956) wrote A Severn Rhapsody, his Opus 3, in 1923; taking the Severn River and its surrounding countryside as his inspiration. Edward Elgar (1857–1934) wrote The Severn Suite, Opus 87, in 1930. Elgar lived much of both his early life and his later life near Worcester, through which the Severn runs. Herbert Howells (1892–1983), born close to the Severn in Lydney, wrote the complex Missa Sabrinensis (Mass of the Severn) in 1954, and an earlier hymn tune simply entitled Severn.

The Severn is often mentioned in Ellis Peters' The Cadfael Chronicles, set in or around Shrewsbury Abbey, beside the river.

In Julian Barnes' 2011 novel, The Sense of an Ending, Tony, the main character, recalls "a river rushing nonsensically upstream, its wave and wash lit by half a dozen chasing torchbeams," an allusion to a visit to the Severn Bore.

In the song "The Last Bristolian Pirate" by The Longest Johns, a disgruntled farmer decides to become a pirate on the Severn, attacking innocent travellers down the river.

title: River Severn