On Multiculturalism in Australia
Preamble – given the Jewish deaths and injuries today at Sydney’s Bondi beach there is an even more urgent need to ensure all who live in Australia respect individual freedom and liberty. There is no place for antisemitism, hatred and terrorism. The Albanese Australian government must do more to fight against antisemitism. It’s time to ensure all who live here abide by our peaceful and tolerant beliefs and morals.
The latest Resolve survey published in the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald found 64% agreed immigration should be paused until the housing crisis was addressed and 54% only want migrants who speak English and who are from countries with similar laws and customs.
In the same way that the 60/40 vote against the Indigenous Voice to parliament represents a victory for what Scott Morrison termed the “quiet Australians” after winning the 2019 federal election, the Resolve survey also represents a significant cultural change.
While the inner-city, university-educated, cosmopolitan elites, who Roger Scruton in his book Where We Are describes as those suffering from ‘oikophobia’ or fear of place, embrace multiculturalism, more and more Australians want to affirm a sense of community and national cohesion, stability and pride.
Similar to the 2016 UK Brexit vote to leave the European Union, the success of centre-right parties in Italy, Finland, Hungary and the Czech Republic and President Trump’s re-election makes it clear that voting sentiment is changing.
Whether opposing multiculturalism and unchecked immigration in favour of national identity and pride, rejecting neo-Marxist inspired gender and sexuality theories, especially transgenderism, or refusing to accept climate alarmism, citizens are saying ‘enough is enough’.
The dramatic increase in the popularity of Pauline Hanson’s centre-right One Nation Party, now at 12% according to the Resolve survey, and the move by the Liberal/National Coalition to forsake Net Zero by 2050 are also evidence citizens are fed up with cultural-left ideology.
Such is the momentum against political correctness that any who dare to question the prevailing centre-left orthodoxy face condemnation and abuse. Camille Paglia, given the extreme nature of such abuse, writes we are living in a time when “intolerance masquerades as tolerance and where individual liberty is crushed by the tyranny of the group”.
Any who question immigration and multiculturalism are especially targeted. Given the rate and nature of the nation’s immigration programme, the Liberal MP Andrew Hastie argued Australians were in danger of becoming “strangers in our own home”. Such a comment, critics suggested, hearkened back to the British white supremacist Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech.
Ignored is that Roger Scruton and Douglas Murrey express a similar sentiment to Hastie when arguing parts of the UK are now ethnic ghettos and, as a result, Britain is losing its long held cultural identity. Both Angela Merkel when Germany’s Chancellor and David Cameron when British Prime Minister are also on the record expressing fears about unchecked immigration and multiculturalism.
Cameron, when arguing in favour of “muscular liberalism”, goes as far as arguing those seeking to settle in the UK must live by the nation’s values, described as, “Freedom of speech, freedom of worship, democracy, the rule of law, equal rights regardless of race, sex or sexuality… this is what defines us as a society.”
Hastie is not the first to suffer such acrimony. The eminent historian Geoffrey Blainey, after questioning the rate of Asian immigration, was forced to resign from his position at the University of Melbourne. John Howard, while leader of the opposition, was also condemned for questioning the rate of Asian immigration.
In addition to the Resolve survey previously mentioned, additional evidence that more and more Australians are anxious and concerned about unchecked immigration and its impact on national stability and cohesion are the March for Australia national rallies held last August and October.
Once again critics, instead of addressing the issue dispassionately, resort to abuse. The Australian Labour Party’s (ALP) Minister for Multicultural Affairs Dr Anne Aly condemns the marches as an example of “far-fight activism grounded in racism and ethnocentrism (that) has no place in modern Australia“.
It’s ironic that the ALP Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke condemns those marching for seeking to “divide and undermine our social cohesion“. Anyone who has visited Melbourne’s Box Hill or Sydney’s Lakemba would appreciate that such suburbs no longer reflect the broader Australian community.
There’s no doubt unchecked immigration and the fact so many immigrants flock to the nation’s already overcrowded cities is placing undue strain on housing and infrastructure. At the same time, it’s vital to acknowledge the impact of immigration on Australia’s sense of national cohesion, stability and pride.
Scruton argues the most pressing political issue of our time is the “question of identity: who are we, where are we, and what holds us together in a shared political order”. It’s time for the leader of the Liberal Party Sussan Ley to lead the debate and assuage the anxiety and concerns of the increasing number of voters fearful of unchecked immigration.
There’s nothing xenophobic or racist about favouring national stability and cohesion and ensuring all those who come to live in Australia accept and live by the values and beliefs that make it such a unique country. A Western, liberal democracy where our institutions and way of life make Australia such a sought after place to migrate to and start a new life.
Dr Kevin Donnelly is an Australian-based education author and commentator. In 2014 he co-chaired the review of the Australian national curriculum. Contact him here.
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“urgent need to ensure all who live in Australia respect individual freedom and liberty.”
I suspect the author knows this is incompatible with the people being imported in large numbers. It has become clear that certain cultural and religious backgrounds are imncompatible with the liberal (correct meaning) and open democracies we built and valued.
This guy’s been there for 20 years and openly declares his allegiance to the Islamic Republic of Iran. The laugh is that he came as a faux refugee ‘fleeing’ the regime. There’s no changing the views of people like this. Then they have kids and what’s the betting their offspring also hold these views and hostilities? There’s no assimilating these sorts of people and idiot, naive progressives are stupid to expect it of them; ”On Sunday, I attended a grassroots barbecue in the heart of Melbourne’s Jewish community, organised by the Lions of Zion. My aim was simple: enjoy a sausage and see if any protesters who had been threatening the event online would actually show up. It didn’t take long before I noticed a man with an Islamic tattoo filming himself and mocking the group. I approached him to understand what he was doing. He immediately insisted he had “no problem” but it didn’t take long for his mask to slip. It was clear that there was a stark divide between his views and those of some other Persian-identifying Iranians attending the barbecue, who were there in solidarity with the Jewish community. The discussion spiralled into his broader allegiance. He… Read more »
If wanting to live with people who “who speak English and who are from countries with similar laws and customs” makes me a racist, that is ok I will happily stand shoulder to shoulder with Enoch Powell, the brightest politician of his generation, sacked by Edward Heath for being a racialist (sic).
Agreed.
I don’t think it’s accurate to refer to Enoch Powell as a British white supremacist.
The ‘Rivers of Blood’ reference was from a poem he quoted. There was a lot of foresight in the rest of that speech, but people rarely get past that memorable phrase..
Gordon Bennett. Is there a word for when equal parts projection and delusion meet? Probably just ‘bullshit’;
”Is there any wonder they is so much hatred and divide in our country. Mothin Ali campaigning to protect brown and black women by the far-right….
Can you imagine the uproar if an MP decided to call for more protection of white women from foreign men…..
ALL women need protecting no matter what the colour of their skin.”
https://x.com/jomickane/status/2000276945125413072
I always thought Australians were big tough independent souls, free thinkers.
Then along came covid clown world, and it seems unfettered immigration. Even worse than the UK. In mind and body they’re wimps – worse than Canadians even.
This is what happens when you just lie down and let the bastards rule you.
As someone who spent 22 years in Canada and 15 in Australia I agree with this assessment completely. Some obviously do live up to that laid back rebellious spirit but the vast majority are the biggest cry baby wusses. Love rules, love being told what to do, love the government.
This sort of thing will be on the cards for ever more because so many treasonous governments have let them in, so it doesn’t actually matter which leader gets in next because the damage has been done, in my opinion. There’s too many of them already here, they’re getting into positions of power and they breed like rabbits. These Muslims have been showing anybody who’ll listen who they really are for years now. Yes, there are decent ones in there somewhere and it’s wrong to tar all with the same brush, but I’m past caring about that and feel it’s better to have a blanket ban on the whole ruddy lot of them, but this is but a pipe dream now. Not happening. There’s no putting this dangerous genie back in the bottle; ”Radical extremists have been marching for years on the streets of Australia, threatening to hunt and kill Jews. In between this bloodlust, they profess their intent to destroy Australia, to bring down the “colonies,” and burn the national flag with glee. They glorify terrorist organisations, march alongside the flags of ISIS and portraits of the terrorist Ali Khamenei, firebomb synagogues, and attack Australians at places of work,… Read more »
Preamble – given the Jewish deaths and injuries today at Sydney’s Bondi beach there is an even more urgent need to ensure all who live in Australia respect individual freedom and liberty.
How did the shooters know these victims/targets were Jews? Because they were attending a beach party? It’s the same rationale that has murderers attack Christmas markets. They must be Christians because they attended a Christmas Market? This is out-and-out terrorism like the IRA used to do: ‘Don’t gather together or we’ll kill you’.
The supporters of these people need to be ejected from society and the country. Or imprisoned.
Mosab being as based as ever;
”Sick irony.
Muslims in the West milk every freedom handed to them, strut around as moral superiors, and never stop trashing Western civilization while staying dead silent about the brutal, woman-stoning, child-raping dictatorships and medieval shitholes they fled.
They run for office screaming “Islamophobia” and flashing the Muslim victim card in countries they never built and never bled for, yet none of them has the guts to go back and fight the corrupt, savage regimes they abandoned.
They arrive empty-handed, begging for a better life, then immediately plant flags of ignorance, misogyny, homophobia, and seventh-century barbarism instead of adapting to liberty and reason.
Spineless, parasitic hypocrites who refuse to assimilate.
Pack the bags and fuck off back to Pakistan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Gaza, or whatever collapsing Islamic toilet they crawled out of. Fix those broken, violent, inbred hellholes before daring to lecture anyone else on how to live.
The West is a thousand times better off without Muslims.
The world would be vastly better without Islam.” Mosab Hassan Yousef.
Austrakia, like the USA and Canada, are unique and (once?) great nations because of their British heritage. That is all it is.
Forget multiculturalism. Let’s have a society where innocent children having a picnic in the park aren’t shot in the head. As if it could be more obvious: Islam is the problem.