The Biggest Problem with Multicultural Australia

Australia is often touted by our leaders as “the great multicultural society”. That’s a direct quote from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese from a few months ago. But on any side of politics the sentiment is exactly the same. Now I would argue that they’re not just trying to be positive about Australia’s multiculturalism. This isn’t just a desire or a hope for multiculturalism to be successful. This is a necessity. If multiculturalism isn’t successful, what’s the alternative? Chaos and disharmony. If multiculturalism fails, Australia becomes a failed state. It means all that government-sponsored mass immigration over the years has be an abject failure, and no government in their right mind would want to admit that. There’s no unwinding multicultural Australia. We either make it work, or society collapses, and that obviously is in no-one’s interest, apart from our enemies, of course. Because of our demographics, Australia needs multiculturalism to be successful, otherwise we’re done for. There’s a fine line between harmony, and the opposite. Not everyone agrees with Australian ideals.

When peaceful, it’s fine. When everyone gets on, of course, multiculturalism is great. We get to experience different cuisines and different outlooks on life, but this is only good if everyone remains on good terms, which brings us to the biggest problem with multiculturalism, and it’s playing out presently on our streets in Australia, and it was completely predictable.

Imagine there’s a country that accepts people from all around the world, from all different nations and cultures no matter how disparate, ostensibly living in peace together. Well that’s fine, until it’s not. What if two of those nations that are represented locally go to war overseas? It’s happened. Russia and Ukraine. Obviously, there’s Russians and Russian supporters living in Australia, as well as Ukrainians. Of course, there’s been some disharmony to our multicultural society due to this war, although one might argue that this disharmony has been less visible than the current situation playing out on our streets. Of course I’m referring to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. You barely hear about Ukraine any more, rightly or wrongly.

This feels like Australian multiculturalism teetering on the edge. Teetering on the edge of what? I don’t know. Failure? Collapse? I know it’s serious, because the leaders are now speaking out: “PM calls for cohesion as vigils and rallies mark October 7”. If Australia was truly a successful, stable, and harmonious multicultural society, would it require its leader to call for cohesion? In July, “Faith-based political parties would 'undermine social cohesion', prime minister says”, referring to the Muslim Vote movement.

Premier of NSW, Chris Minns, supported the Police commissioner’s application to the Supreme Court to prohibit planned pro-Palestinian protests in Sydney, which have since gone ahead by the way. Does a harmonious multicultural society require protests to be made illegal? Specifically, he said, “It’s our responsibility to work together to ensure we keep this cohesive, harmonious, safe community that we have in New South Wales.” Again I ask, is it necessary to forbid a protest in a truly cohesive, harmonious, multicultural community?

Premier of Victoria, Jacinta Allan, was asking protesters to abandon their plans for October 7, but the request fell on deaf ears, the protests are going ahead. Specifically, she said, “I want to make it absolutely clear. People should not be protesting on October 7th.”

Despite what critics say, Australia does have some sort of shared values. For example, the LGBT community in some countries are imprisoned, or worse. Women aren’t allowed to drive, or go get an education in some countries. There’s lots of other things I could quote, but I think you get the idea. Do we agree with those cultural practices here in Australia? No, of course not, well, most Australians don’t. But yet we say we’re a multicultural country that accepts all cultures. Obviously, we have our limits and have a defined set of values. We may quibble over what those values are, but female circumcision is not one of them.

Let’s not fool ourselves. Australian multiculturalism requires upkeep. It’s not in itself naturally stable. As I said earlier, Australian multiculturalism is teetering on the edge. If multiculturalism fails, Australia becomes a failed state.

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Allégro by Emmit Fenn