From Austria to Hungary and the Netherlands to Norway, Europeans are backing populist, far-right parties and ideas. The so-called Donald Trumps of the continent. Austria’s leader Norbert Hofer pledged to “stop the invasion of Muslims” by building a fence on his nation’s southern border . Antisemitism and Islamophobia are rampant – recent polling in Hungary found at least one third of the population disliked Jews – and attacks against migrants in Germany echo a dark past. Making matters worse, the European Union is working with some of the most despotic African regimes to stop people leaving in the first place.

It’s why recent comments by Australian immigration minister Peter Dutton, questioning the language, suitability and adaptability of new arrivals, were so tame compared to the reckless and inflammatory outbursts by countless international counterparts. But Dutton’s comments aren’t the main issue here – it’s what successive Australian governments have imposed on refugees over the last two decades and a general public who are willing to support it.

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This is not to defend Dutton’s statements but they were hardly extreme or even unusual when compared to current global trends. Outrage over Dutton obscures the fact that Australia is now an inspiration globally over its refugee policies. Dismissing Dutton won’t change this grim reality. That’s the scandal that bedevils 21st Australia: cruelty against asylum seekers dressed up as compassion and deterrence.

Dutton was savaged for his comments and I don’t have any sympathy for his stance but it’s worth asking why anybody takes seriously Labor party posturing over his rhetoric. After all, it was on their watch that the most extreme form of offshore processing of asylum seekers, on Nauru and Manus Island, was re-introduced.

Labor’s immigration spokesman Richard Marles recently said that there was an “absolute guarantee” his party now marched in unison with Liberal party policy over refugees. This means indefinite detention on remote Pacific islands and trying to strike deals with autocratic regimes in the region to take desperate people languishing for years without hope.

Australia is a lucky nation if Dutton and his dog-whistling is the worst speech it needs to endure. A recent Amnesty survey found Australia was one of the most welcoming nations in the world towards refugees once they were living in the community and yet this is incongruous with a lack of public outcry towards abuses by private operators against asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus Island.

If murder and rape doesn’t generate genuine outrage, then sympathy is clearly in short supply. Words matter but actions are far more damaging to both Australia’s reputation and moral core. Australia remains deeply unsure of its identity, still unhealthily tied to Britain and the US, while being a geographical, if not ideological, part of Asia.

Australia has spent more than two decades finding new and ingenious ways to isolate, punish and attack boat arrivals and Dutton is simply the latest in a long list of advocates for the cause. Recall Phillip Ruddock as immigration minister in the late 1990s unleashing draconian conditions for asylum seekers. Today he’s cute clickbait for Buzzfeed.

Buildings walls and fences, both literally and rhetorically, is the curse of this age and Australia has been leading the way for years. Chastising Dutton is necessary but it will have little effect on ingrained Australian attitudes towards people arriving by boat who look, sound and think differently (most of whom are Muslims).

An Australian media with few non-white faces doesn’t help. To bring change will require a thorough examination of why Australia, as a relatively young, post-colonial nation, has never had proper accounting of its dark past and an honest assessment of how it treats the most vulnerable in its society and the world.

Dutton needs to lift his game if he wants to compete with the master of the genre, Donald Trump (now back-tracking on his earlier call to ban all Muslims entering the US despite it having huge public support). Trump is surging across America, and is a real possibility to win the general election in November, because white populations are feeling angry and disillusioned.

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Much of the mainstream media has given Trump huge amounts of free publicity and airtime. CBS head Les Moonves says the Republican candidate is “damn good” for business. The corporate press is a cosy club who know Trump well and have indulged his attitudes for decades. When Trump, his fellow Republicans and media attack dogs damn Syrian refugees and Islam the result is surging Islamophobia.

Living away from Australia has given me a different take on Dutton and the surrounding furore. I’ve been writing, investigating and campaigning on asylum seekers for over a decade and Dutton’s comments were just business as usual for a country that long ago lost any moral high-ground on refugees.

After an outburst such as Dutton’s, I regularly hear asylum seeker supporters say that Australia is “better than this”. How so? There are few times in Australia’s history when Canberra wasn’t targeting one minority or the other. Although Australia is a remarkably successful multicultural nation (in some of the main cities, at least), it’ll never sleep and dream easily until it finds its own independent path.

It has a long way to go.