Opinion: Forgive me for trying to spread Australian values

A study on multiculturalism in Australia carries an accusation that all groups are expected to integrate in society – sparking a passionate debate.

If you are having trouble sleeping, I suggest retiring to the couch with a copy of the newly released government-funded study titled Towards Fairness: A Multicultural Australia For All.

The title gives a hint as to where this is heading, suggesting as it does that we do not live in a fair society and need to be lectured on how we can lift our game.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner June Oscar opens the batting with a foreword that accuses Anglo-Celtic-Saxons of “violent attempts to eradicate anything deemed counter to Western Anglo society”.

Compiled by ex-SBS chairman Bulent Delall, human rights lawyer Nyadol Nyuon and bureaucrat Christine Castley, who spent six months travelling around the country, the report adds to the Anglo-bashing by referencing “violent attempts at eradication in 1788 with the arrival of British colonisers. British laws, social structures, symbols, culture, and identity were imposed on everyone living in the colonies at the time,” it says.

Being British and not French or Spanish, I suppose they would.

According to the report, multiculturalism – how I hate the word – enjoyed a golden age under the Hawke government, but then it was all downhill under that dreadful John Howard.

Under the Howard government in the mid-1990s there was “a backlash against multiculturalism”. I can’t say I noticed, but if there was it was probably because people were bored to death hearing about it.

In her foreword, June Oscar claims violent attempts to eradicate non-Anglo influences.

The report also takes issue with calls for stronger border control measures, saying these prompted “a characterisation of immigration and cultural diversity as possible threats to national security rather than opportunities for social improvement”. It seems the authors missed those news reports detailing the lengthy criminal histories of some illegal immigrants currently in detention.

We are also accused of promoting “shared Australian values” that all groups are expected to follow to integrate into Australian society, making us guilty of what it calls ”assimilationist attitudes”. I don’t see a problem with shared Australian values, so plead guilty to the charge of being an assimilationist.

The report quotes a university academic who complained that “it’s very difficult to join this (multicultural) journey when you enter a courtroom and there is no judge who looks like you and when you turn on the television you see no reflection of anyone who looks like you or similar to you at all. This is true also for this parliament, the executive, the ministers, as well as senior public servants and leaders in the corporate sector.” Indigenous people have been successful across the full spectrum of Australian professional life but that, of course, does not fit the narrative.

“Othering” is another sin blighting the national conscience. “Othering”, if you were wondering, takes place when “certain groups are perceived as fundamentally different or outside the societal norm that has become entrenched in many societies”. Challenging and redefining this narrative is essential in moving towards a more inclusive and diverse society, we are told, overlooking the fact that some groups are fundamentally different and rejoice in the fact.

The report takes aim at both ‘assimilation’ and ‘othering’.

Our schooling system is also found wanting, with schools needing to be “culturally responsive”.

“More than this, students’ voices must be heard,” the report says. Perhaps if they listened instead of complaining, their outcomes might improve.

Australia’s current language testing requirements for migrants, we are told, are demonstrably outdated, discriminatory and exclusionary, hindering the full integration and contribution of skilled individuals while our “historic reliance on only English limits our capability in trade, tourism, inbound and outward investment, diplomacy and, not least, national security”.

I would have thought it self-evident that to fully enjoy what our country offers, you need to speak the language.

SBS television is praised in the report and should “assist mainstream commercial media and the arts to steer away from token representation of global and cosmopolitan diversity”. I can hardly wait. SBS, it is worth noting, is so inclusive that you will not find a single Anglo among its presenters.

Central to the report is money and lots of it, with recommendations across a range of issues, all requiring truckloads of government money and the creation of several new layers of bureaucracy including a dedicated and well-funded government department, all staffed, we may presume, by well remunerated persons from culturally diverse backgrounds. Multiculturalism, it seems, doesn’t come cheap.

Towards Fairness, all 151 pages of it, is a monumental waste of money and an insult to all those migrants who embrace what we offer and thank us for our generosity of spirit.