Alan Tudge has confronted what Turnbull won’t
At one level, Alan Tudge’s speech was a welcome assertion in the face of a growing immigration problem. At another though, it was a warning that things are going badly wrong, writes Peta Credlin.
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IN a couple of weeks’ time, Australia’s population will hit 25 million.
In 2002, experts said this would take 40 years to happen; but we’ve got there in 16. Along with a debate about our rate of immigration and rapid growth, Australians are now demanding we talk about who comes here, and how they fit in.
At a conference in London overnight on Friday, citizenship minister Alan Tudge posed what is one of the biggest questions our country faces.
“How can social cohesion be maintained”, he asked, “during a time of large-scale, diverse immigration?”
This is the question that untold millions of people are asking in the nations of the West as they face the challenge of keeping their countries’ character amid out-of-control immigration. Even here in Australia, where the Abbott government re-established strong border protection, the question is particularly pertinent given that sustained legal migration is at all-time record levels.
Naturally enough, Tudge made the usual genuflections to the conventional wisdom — that we are the world’s most successful immigrant nation. But bravely, he added that we are “veering towards a European separatist, multicultural model” and needed to be put back “firmly on the Australian integrated path.” He also questioned the modern mantra of “diversity, tolerance and inclusion” saying that diversity should not include people who want to practice sharia law, or who believe in violence to achieve their ends. Similarly, he said, tolerance should not include female genital mutilation or child marriage. And yes, we should be inclusive towards newcomers, but they had an even stronger obligation, to be inclusive towards us.
At one level, Tudge’s speech was a welcome assertion of robust common sense and cultural self-confidence in the face of the moral relativism and identity politics which has so sapped our ability (and the ability of like-minded countries) to stand up for ourselves. At another level though, it was a warning that things are going badly wrong and need to be fixed fast lest we find ourselves with no-go ghettos like so many big European cities.
We have been more successful than others at maintaining social cohesion, he said, because of “careful immigrant selection” and “insistence on immigrant integration”.
The trouble I have with this statement is that we don’t really do either of these. Tudge admitted that half the permanent migrant intake had never lived in Australia, so we really have no idea how they might fit in before we let them in. Despite citizenship tests and values statements, there’s no way of monitoring whether migrants take them seriously or live them out. And we don’t put the same expectations on people who come as humanitarian migrants.
In another concession to political correctness, Tudge supported integration over assimilation, as our long-term policy objective. Yet there would be almost no Australians without assimilation.
Imagine if six generations after the Credlins first arrived here, I refused to consider myself Australian, instead maintaining I was half English and half Irish — that would be a nonsense. Still, to his great credit, Tudge recognised that instead of being genuinely multicultural, Australia — like the countries of Europe — could end up with “monoculturalism side-by-side” which, he said, is a recipe for “conflict and alienation”.
Tudge is one of the best ministers in the current government. Not only is he across the detail of his portfolio but he’s thoughtful and outspoken in articulating the principles on which policy is based and the goals it’s trying to achieve. Like his senior minister, Peter Dutton, you know he believes the right things and is trying to do them.
Like Dutton, he often gives the impression that he would like to do more, and do it differently, if only the prime minister would let him. But that’s the problem with this government. It’s a centre-right party with a centre-left leader.
To return to Tudge’s original question, it’s actually impossible to maintain social cohesion when the immigration program is both very large and very diverse. Because Malcolm Turnbull is a Big Australia man, he will never agree to a big cut in migration numbers so we’re left with tantalising hints of how much better this government could be … if only there was a bit more moral ticker.