Dutton came off as the schoolyard bully to Sydney’s migrant communities
They may have been migrants once. Now they are true blue Aussies. Last Saturday, as they voted, they turfed the bully out of the playground, writes Liverpool Mayor Ned Mannoun.
Opinion
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Sydney is such a unique and beautiful place.
One of the best places to see this is at any one of the thousands of building sites scattered around town.
There you will see a bunch of Australians who have migrated here from all parts of the world looking for a fair go: Chinese, Lebanese, Irish, Greek, Italian, South American, Serbian to name a few.
Many can barely speak English, but they all somehow understand each other. They toil together, harmonised by the opportunity of the great Australian Dream.
This is unity, this is Sydney.
They build the ‘Great Australian Dream’ — our homes — that we are in, that little piece of land from the boundless plains that we told them we will share.
Like anything, when you find something good you hope to share it with those you love and you hope that one day too your relatives overseas will be able to “share” in this dream and migrate to the best country in the world.
To be blunt, through the different waves of migration, each group has had their “rite of passage”, as some may call it. In reality it’s just plain racism
But just when you think we have moved on, we had a federal election where the guy who wanted to be prime minister said that Lebanese Muslims migrating to Australia was a mistake.
That our kids can’t afford a house because of overseas students (in the last 20 years approx 750,000 of these students are now Aussies and can vote).
And who said let’s cut immigration because migrants are to blame for the traffic and all your other problems, not the reels of red and green tape and lack of planning and leadership that means you prefer a root canal over lodging a development application.
When you hear this in an election, it reminds you of the kids in the playground picking on the ‘Wogs’ with their salami and olives, and you think its now “their turn”.
The fact is, the school bully shouldn’t be running for PM. And just like any movie you see with a school yard bully, they usually have a bunch of idiots standing next to them cheering them on and guilty of being accessories.
Normally voters get out their baseball bats for governments.
This time Sydney brought it out for Peter Dutton.
Just like a classic movie scene, the school yard teamed up to kick out the bully.
From the 10-pound Pom to the refugee from Iraq, we stood up for our mates who weren’t getting a fair go.
We may have been migrants once, but now we are true blue Aussies and last Saturday many of us were forced to turn “red”.
Sydney is a big building site that stands united, and no one should or can divide us.
— Ned Mannoun is Mayor of Liverpool
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