"Until the postwar flood of refugees and migrants, Oz was backward in its appreciation of diversity and as comfortably racist as anywhere in America's deep south. There was no effective opposition to this until the mid60s"

Not so, my friend. Not even close. I spent 4 years in Australia, during the seventies and you had a long, long way to go with regards to accepting other nationalities. While I do recognize a more liberal shift, as demonstrated by most Australian Mudcatters I can only wonder how the rest of the country is today. Your isolation is probably your biggest enemy in this regard.
As for Mr Howard; From all that I've seen, he strikes me as being an honest, sincere bloke who is doing the best that he can for his country.
He is however, the product of the very era that you described and though well meaning, is probably discovering the error of his ways as we speak and will, in all likelihood, change his course.