By mid-century, settler-colonialism had, by and large, defeated the Aboriginal protection agenda, and the movement for self-government was growing. Those urging self-government were still proudly British, but they articulated this Britishness in terms of their right to determine the future of their own colonies. Self-government sentiments were strengthened in the eastern colonies by a massive campaign against British plans to revive (in NSW) or continue (in VDL) convict transportation. The anti-transportation campaign and changes in the economic character of the colonies together ensured a more politically and socially diverse push for self-government than elite colonists wished. Liberals and radicals increasingly challenged pastoralists’ land and labour policies. They lacked, however, a coherent Aboriginal policy of their own, or much heartfelt commitment to the issue, suggesting that under self-government, pastoralist-supported policies were likely to prevail. In debates over political rights in the Australian colonies, Aboriginal people were portrayed by colonists as outside civilised society, undeserving of rights or recognition – the objects of government, not its makers. The idea that Aboriginal people posed no military or political threat to colonists – indeed, the idea that they were a doomed and dying race – was cited as further proof of settlers’ readiness for self-government.