We must remember that cultural diversity is not only about racism and folk from other lands. How can Australia be a truly pluralistic society when neither the indigenous nor the disabled has a minister designated exclusively for their issues in the new cabinet?

Ah I love the smell of self interest groups all outlining "what should be done".

We're clearly now going to see a pile on of groups all trying to vie for a place at the trough.

What about .. xyz, or that or this .. I didn't get enough (of taxpayers money)

As long as you include some of that well worked mantra of the left (with their hands held out, and lots of free advice) "the Howard did .. or did not" insert favored whine here..

What's up folks, didn't find yourselves important during the Rudd years? You all thought he was the massiah, now we just gloss over that time, like this article does and tries to park all problems with the previous government.

When you say measured debate, I can see you mean not about whether there is a need for such multicultural funding, or whether we want it - you seem to think, that's a given position. Much like other "debates" of the progressives, it starts with a prerequisite that everyone agrees and it's only down to how much money is involved and which people are ordained to be the carriers of the money bags for distribution of "other people's wealth, i.e. the taxpayer"

Does the average taxpayer get a voice in this debate?

I thought not.

It's obvious all the (self) interest groups think there are buckets of money available since we have a "progressive" government and everyone is trying to beat everyone else to the shovels!

Prof.Jakubowicz hasn't explained why Australia needs a 'multicultural policy' administered by the government. Liberal democratic nations are intrinsically multicultural by virtue of of their democratic institutions. What are the parameters and limitations of 'multiculturalism',where is this explained by its advocates? I presume that the promoters of multicultural policies are not planning for a mosaic of separate, self-governing communities on the Ottoman model.What is the model anyway?
Why do we need legislation to enshrine "individual freedom of cultural identity",whatever that is? Governments have, of course, have an obligation to legislate against racial discrimination,however multiculturalist policies sound more like attempts at social engineering,leave us alone.

golden days of multicultural lobby are hopefully over.

As previous comment noted, our political system has enough freedom for varied cultures to uphold their needs and wants. We, as Australians, are embracing the positive features of many cultures into our own national makeup.

We also have political leaders now (or hopefully) the wiser for recent experiences around the world to know that the balance between cultural rights and unity is complex with only a naive govt likely to gain woo votes by raving on about each culture's rights as the multicultural lobby do.

What, more of the multicultural 'initiatives' that have put so many holes in the bucket of public revenue that it leaks like a colander? Yes, that would be a certain recipe for a change in government and soon.

The federal government needs to urgently review the Seventies and Eighties policies that led to a flourishing victim industry in Australia and return to the circumstance where only the truly vulnerable, such as the disabled, are given assistance (but where assistance is given it is not done meanly). As any HR manager would observe, there are so many so-called disadvantaged groups with their elbows out for preference in recruitment and advancement that the disabled, who do not have powerful lobby groups acting for them, are forever missing out and they shouldn't be.

Multicultural interests do not need more government funded assistance, for some time they have been a powerful tail wagging the government dog for advantage and benefits. To be fair, the same can be said of government funding for women's 'issues'.

@Mac,
Professor Jakubowicz is paid to produce this type of information, if he doesn't come up with the goods he'll lose his job.
The link offered in the first paragraph as justification for his views shows the true point of this wall of text.
How dare people be against interracial marriage!
How dare they value their Race over others!
"Racism" is a values system like any other, if it isn't then it doesn't exist.

People like the authour seem to think multiculturalism is fate even as it collapses all around them. From the Arizona immigration bill to the weekly protests in Britain against mass immigration to the mosque controversy in New York to the refugee issue in Australia to France banning the burqa to Geert Wilders set to become leader of Holland, it appears they'll always be atleast 50% of natives in a society that will not under any circumstances go along with the diversity Worldview.

The Tea Party have just won another primary in Delaware, this unity before diversity movement is now a revolution that looks like it will sweep the whole Western World. The tiny minority of people who supported the illogic of multiculturalism and the Orwellian "diversity is strength" insanity are in retreat, a new paradigm is emerging and everyone is going to be better for it.

The problem for multiculturalists in what do you do with the people who want their traditions, history and culture to be celebrated? You can't lock up 50% of the population.

Not so long ago, in a fit of self-congratulatory hubris, the then PM Kevin Rudd let the cat out of the bag that over-population (Big Australia) and 'diversity' were priority goals of 'his' government.

Unfortunately for Mr Rudd, who was probably blinded by the distant glow of a senior UN post, he completely forgot that he was supposed to be serving the long-suffering citizens of Australia and he had no mandate whatsoever for his 'Big Australia' nor for a 'A Big, Really Diverse Australia'. History shows that Mr Rudd soon ate a bullet for his disdain for accepting the will of the electorate.

If the Gillard government forgets the lesson delivered to Mr Rudd previously or to Labor in the recent federal election, Labor will very soon return to the opposition benches, decimated.

I skimmed some of this blokes rubbish, but skipped most of it.

I am so sick of this stuff propagated by a fringe people in accademia, who are more interested in the opinion of their fellows in other such occupations elsewhere, than the opinion of their betters, who pay their salaries. I say occupation rather lightly, as it is hard to see what they do as employment. It is a definite fact, that given the option, most of us, their paymasters would make them redundant. The only thing most of them has ever done for Oz, is waste money, & reduce our enjoyment of our country of birth.

Roll on the Tea Party, where do I join, & could we import some of the leaders of chinese cultural revolution to act as advisers for our education policy.

Yes I know Graham, but I am so sick of my taxes being used to pay these people, who only want to bugger a perfectly good country.

Be careful what you pray for!

Anyone who thinks the "populist" Tea Party or Sarah Palin is the solution to anything at all is seriously deluded and have not done their home-work.

The "populist" Tea Party & Sarah Palin are brought to one and all by the deep pockets of billionaires, and loudly promoted by the raving looney psycho-paths at Fox "news" such as Glen Beck, Russ Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter etc etc. And by the entire USA right-wing (fear and loathing) noise machine too.

Check out the criticisms of the T-P and Sarah Palin at Truth Out and Reader Supported news.

Be afraid very afraid if you are in any sense a liberal in the USA.

By cultural diversity could you mean the difference between Abbott and Gillard?

Forgive me for the red herring but listening to Abbott this morning convinces me the Abbott space mobile left our planet some weeks ago as he is still talking about illegitimate govts. He just can't accept he didn't win.

He's bullying the independents and has since they stood up. Today Oakeshott cancelled a public meeting due to threats.

Any party leader should be in the media immediately decrying that disgusting offence but Abbott? Nothing, silence. After all it was probably the devil again, right?

This guy Abbott is truly a fruit cake. Doesn't think the govt is legitimate. Maybe he stood for govt in Iraq? Is that the problem as that hasn't been resolved after 8 months.

What is wrong with these people? A whole party cowering behind this creep as if he is worth something. He's a peanut in budgie smugglers and a lunatic out of them.

Professor Jakubowicz is talking about solutions to the Race problem.
He's using Final Solution language in the link he's provided.
Not only that he's using his own work, his own Blog as a reference!
Now do you people see what I mean?
"Everybody says there is this RACE problem. Everybody says this RACE problem will be solved when the third world pours into EVERY white country and ONLY into white countries."

"The Netherlands and Belgium are more crowded than Japan or Taiwan, but nobody says Japan or Taiwan will solve this RACE problem by bringing in millions of third worlders and quote assimilating unquote with them."

"Everybody says the final solution to this RACE problem is for EVERY white country and ONLY white countries to "assimilate," i.e., intermarry, with all those non-whites."

"What if I said there was this RACE problem and this RACE problem would be solved only if hundreds of millions of non-blacks were brought into EVERY black country and ONLY into black countries?"

"How long would it take anyone to realize I'm not talking about a RACE problem. I am talking about the final solution to the BLACK problem?"

"And how long would it take any sane black man to notice this and what kind of psycho black man wouldn't object to this?"

"But if I tell that obvious truth about the ongoing program of genocide against my race, the white race, Liberals and respectable conservatives agree that I am a naziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews."

"They say they are anti-racist. What they are is anti-white."

"Anti-racist is a code word for anti-white."

another rubbish academic.

yawn.

@ Truthnow and the other dissatisfied constituents.
Word is just coming in from the New Hampshire primaries that a pen pal of mine, Ryan J Murdough who's a state rep for A3P, The American Third Position has polled 10% of the vote on a White Nationalist platform.
It can be done, the Greens are polling 10% in most seats here and they've been in operation for 30 years, Ryan has been an A3P rep for only 3 months and the party was only formed last year.
The media has thrown the kitchen sink at him,Nazi, White supremacist, Hater, they even put a photo of a skinhead with a swastika tattoo on his scalp as the illustration for an op ed piece.
It can be done, legally,in a positive, non violent way.
http://american3p.org/blog/ryan-murdough%e2%80%99s-n-h-campaign-takes-off-with-weekend-of-activism/
http://american3p.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoFiLUmiEq0&feature=player_embedded

I don't think we need parties based on race at all, but the leftist academics and media types need to know what the average person is willing to tolerate before they go ahead with their cultural experiments. If they ignore the will of the people then they're just needlessly creating the conditions for future conflict.

Like in Arizona, when protests get out of control, either the Mexican immigrants or the pro-American nativists will be blamed for the unrest. When in reality the entire situation was created by leftist social experiments on a people who never wanted to take part. The illegal immigrants aren't the problem, it's the publicly funded academics like the authour who see the World as their playground.

"Like in Arizona, when protests get out of control, either the Mexican immigrants or the pro-American nativists will be blamed for the unrest. When in reality the entire situation was created by leftist social experiments on a people who never wanted to take part. The illegal immigrants aren't the problem, it's the publicly funded academics like the authour who see the World as their playground."

Go to the top of the class.
There's one question these academics will never answer:
"What proportion of Australians should be White?"
If Whiteness is the problem, as stated by the author, then the logical final solution to the problem is to get rid of White people altogether.

I find this author's views repulsive. He is incredibly racist. He wants as much as he can get for his own people at the expense of white Australia. He is continuously harping on about rights. Every few weeks he has yet another article on OLO about how immigrants are so badly done by in this country. My generous country let him and his parents come here and this is how he repays us. He makes his living out of blaming the very country that has done so much for him. The whole Multicultural industry should be dismantled.

He reminds me of another one of his mates whom I used to listen to on the radio some 20 years ago, harping on about the MC industry and how it brings such benefits to Australia. Here is one of her quotes, you will remember old Prof Mary Kalantzis, probably one of the first to sponge off the MC industry....

" We also need to recognise that our robust immigration program—the largest in the
world over the past half century, bar the peculiar exception of Israel, and the
most diverse—has fundamentally transformed who we are as a people, to the point
where retrograde notions of ‘mateship’ have become almost meaningless. We have
found new ways of living together, central to which is the tolerant and
inclusive spirit defined by multiculturalism."

She delights in the idea of fundamentally transforming who we are as a people and also the idea that mateship has become meaningless.

I can't wait till the day we start deporting these useless people.

So Andrew Jakubowicz

"Kate Lundy... should also begin public consultation through the Prime Minister’s department on a Multiculturalism Act for Australia, that enshrines individual freedom of cultural identity as well as recognition of the value of culturally diverse communities and cultural heritage."

What an excellent idea.

Can I suggest, to assist in this process, a trip to the UK for Ms Lundi. To visit in some of the very finest examples of Multiculteralism at work, for example Bradford.

France and the Netherlands too, could be on the itinery.

I guarantee she will come back a changed person. Why not go with her Andrew? You might then think twice before engaging in such ridiculous waffle.

Jay of Melbourne

I live in terror of giving birth to a dark skinned baby because I am 6th generation Australian - who knows what my ancestors got up to during the early pioneering of this great land.

Should I have myself sterilised just in case? My partner is of Spanish ancestry and rather dark, although I am very fair and blued-eyed I may not produce a pure white baby.

What do you suggest I do? I could leave my current partner and find someone with Anglo-Saxon ancestry, but I cannot be sure of my own - I could be part Aboriginal, Torres-Strait Islander, or even Middle Eastern from when the Afghanis brought camels out to Australia during the white colonisation - for all I know.

I bring this post to your attention, because it is quite possible there are no pure white people left on this planet at all, given all the exploration, settlement and travell - there may be no pure races of people left anywhere.

A lady I knew at work who was from India showed me a photo of her grandchild, I was expecting to see a little brown baby, instead the kid had red hair, pale skin and green eyes. You can imagine my surprise.

Thank you for your time considering my post.

My father was a migrant , he expected nothing and was thankful for what minimal support was given but ultimately he worked his way up in a number of jobs until he married, then turning to study and a trade skill which set him up for the rest of his life.

Too much money is spent on the window dressing of multiculturalism with various government funded Councils, Associations and other centres for cultural diversity. What can a government do, it seems no matter how much money is spent, there will be someone asking for more on what is really a social responsibility.

Governments are about providing services, they should not be in the business of promulgating a big Australia to suit the agenda of the business or cultural lobby groups or the citizenship interests of international students.

Australia has been multicultural since the 50s and steadily growing. We don't need more government instigated programs except to provide good social services to all Australians in the normal process of program and policy making inclusive of migrants.

The biggest problem does not pertain to race but goes much deeper to religious differences and other cultural divisions. There is no paranoia in relation to de-radicalisation of young men - it is a sad fact that there are some in Australia who are not always possessed of the same interest in a secular and equal opportunity society, particularly if you add a sense of not belonging.

The big question is how to be more inclusive and how can this be achieved? I don't think throwing more money on window dressing policy or social engineering is going to add much more. Programs like job creation and education/skills creation programs for youth are the way to go IMO. Much of these problems will diminish over time with later generations, but in the meantime mutual respect will go a long way. Respect cannot be bought via government programs it will only come at the personal and community level.

@ Severin.
Why would you ask me those silly questions about purity unless you have doubts about your choices and identity?

I've never heard of an Indigenous person saying,"I'm not sure if I'm really Aboriginal".
If you're denying your race it's probably because you're trying to hide something or because you're ashamed for some reason.
People don't deny or hide things they value or are proud of.

Jay of Melbourne

Don't you have any doubts?

Wouldn't a person of mixed racial heritage wonder where they fit - especially if they are treated as second class people by either race?

Therefore, if I have a child of mixed Spanish and Anglo 'race' maybe that child will be bullied at school by children of White Nationalists? Isn't that a bad thing to happen to a child or anyone?

You have written at length of the demise of the white race. This is strange given the white race had its origins in Africa when, thousands of years ago, people who travelled to Europe and beyond have African genealogy? Biological Anthropologists have determined by studying DNA know that we all share the same genes and that skin colour evolved as a result of the climate in which people lived.

Culture is a construct generally perceived as: "The system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviours, and artifacts that the members of society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning."

For example, if you are born in Afganistan you will likely follow Islam as your religion and listen to Afghani music, wear Afghani style clothes.

Eskimos, adapt their culture to fit the environment in which they live and their culture includes the sharing of wives, which given that sleeping together for warmth is just good sense, indicates how this practice evolved.

It is a great shame of humans to alienate other people purely for their skin colour and culture, don't you think?

@Severin.
Why are you arguing with me about race if you believe it's a social construct, you don't need any evidence to prove that position ,you just have to sit and say NO NO NO! to everything anyone else says.
So you're presumably not aware that the earliest "Black" human remains date to only around 7,000 B.C., and that Africa's oldest "Black" civilisation, Kerma dates to only 3000 B.C.
Whereas they're unearthing complex civilisations, 12,000 year old buildings in Anatolia, which, given that the Turks didn't arrive until 600AD and the Black Africans didn't exist must have been built by...horrors..White people.
Now you tell me, on balance is it more likely that those ancient ruins were built by Whites. Given that nobody disputes that the ancient Iranians/Aryans of that region were White, that the later Caucasian Empires were White, that Neolithic Europeans were White.
If you watch even the most dumbed down TV program, such as the recent "Human Journey" they say that White people are not just faded Black people, that the melanin Vitamin D theory is just speculation.
In that program they say it's not known where exactly White people came from but that there was a migration westwards from central Russia beginning about 25,000 years ago.
I can't understand why a White woman would subscribe to an Afrocentric version of history, it makes no sense for you to believe that you're "Mixed Race", it's a cop out and ties in to the discussion I had with Rainier about White Privilege being reliant on denial of Whiteness.
You're not white by accident, for more than 25,000 years your ancestors have chosen mates of the same race because they valued Whiteness,you are the result of careful planning and selective breeding on their part not random "genetics".
If anything is a social construct it's your point of view.