Why isn't Australia more like America? would make just as much, if not more sense. Like the US Australia was built on surplus capital and labour from the old world. Early development was predicated on Pacific trade (whale oil etc) and depended on developments in shipping. But the creation of a large home market is the condition of Australia's take- off. In recent years the country gained by its association with Pacific growth (which it is trying to avoid the downside of now).
The reason that we know so much about the Keep Australia White policy is because it has been dumped (or at least heavily moderated) and is now the subject of academic criticism and public shame. Aborigine rights are on the agenda, however unsatisfactorily.
Culturally, Australia is embracing multi-culturalism (with some resistance), and hosts the largest gay pride parade in the hemisphere.
The Pacific orientation sees Australia playing an increasingly independent role, which is even imperialistic, in its gleeful contribution to the East Timor policing operation and belated shift in policy on Indonesia's occupation. -- James Heartfield