Pericles, "Does anyone keep tabs on how much we actually spend, as a nation, on the practice of multiculturalism?"

I presume you mean in dollars alone,

"When specific criticisms are made of this policy, researchers and academics are usually commissioned by government organizations such as the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) - which reports directly to the Prime Minister through the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet - to undermine and refute claims critical of this policy. The effect of such funding has been to distort and manipulate public debate.

Federal, State and local governments are likely to spend over A$100 million each year simply promoting, supporting and justifying the policy of multiculturalism. It includes the subsidizing of the multicultural media; academics and researchers who support this policy; and 'education' programs for children, students and the community. However, the full extent of multicultural funding is unknown, partly because it is often allocated in a covert manner."

By Stephen Rimmer
Volume 3, Number 1 (Fall 1992)
Issue theme: "Revealing the costs of immigration"

from http://www.thesocialcontract.com/artman2/publish/tsc0301/article_208.shtml

Pericles,
Cornflower is right. I started to keep tabs years ago and found that one had to get both Fed and State annual reports just to see the amount of direct grants. This is only the tip as there are so many hidden costs racked up by many departments and then many local governments also spend significant amounts on Ethnic affairs.

I was pleased to see the previous Government drop the term Multiculture and the present government has not put any emphasis on it. In fact the present PM used to talk about 'social inclusion' as an ideology but never quite explained what it included. Be interesting to see if that is expanded on during this term

I think the authors like this one here are simply trying to save their industry in the face of governments just letting multiculturalism die away.

"benefit from differences set within a framework of shared fundamental values which enables them to coexist on a complementary rather than competitive basis. It involves respect for the law and for our democratic institutions and processes."

Herein lies the real issue...if thesecommunities can musle dollars out of major parties to get the % swing they need for a seat, then it could be argued these 'grants' are actually inducements, prohibited by Federal electoral laws.