I think, with this article, multiculturalism has 'jumped the shark' and perhaps helps explain why the Europeans have quit multiculturalism, America continues to be mired in it and the rest of the World have always seen it as colonialism, i.e. the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory.

Yeah, kinda sorta.
Anyone watch Dumb, Drunk & Racist?
The whole premise is laughable Anti Racist drivel.
The idea of White Australians being able to organise themselves to actually do anything about their alleged "Racist' beliefs is beyond a joke, even the people from the Australian Protectionist Party in the Villawood protest segment are led and directed by foreigners and ally themselves with the pro Israel lobby.
White people are right to be ashamed of the Cronulla incident, I'm ashamed that my people are so gutless and broken down after decades of oppression that the only way they can now react to outside pressure is like a mob of Third World deadheads.
Most people gloss over the fact that the first Lebanese response was to run and defend their mosques from what they supposed would be an imminent attack by a White mob.
Any White person who is racially aware would have been laughing out loud at the idea of such a raid, after nearly seven decades of a total war on White ethnic identity and group interests we are no longer capable of the kinds of actions which may have occurred in years past. All but a few very elderly people have even lived in a White society and soon that living memory will pass into history, the author of this article has nothing to worry about, at it's worst it's sticks and stones but there's no grunt, no backbone behind the arm that slings them.

When I was a kid, in the days when we still had a "baker" with a horse & cart deliver our bread, it took my mother at least 5 minutes to figure out where our baker came from. You see he was from one of those counties of the UK with to us thick accents, which provided less migrants to Oz, particularly country Oz. His accent, although he was supposedly speaking English, was too much for her.

I know Ramesh would not approved, but she wanted to know where our baker was from, & was interested in his reasons for emigrating.

His son & I played football together in the school team, & the families later became great friends, even going on holidays together.

Perhaps if Ramesh were a little less full of his own importance, he too could have found a friend, rather than have given insult.

He & his organisation sound like just what we can do without in Oz.

I have mates who are blackfellas (they say), I'm a whitefella. I'm not ashamed of that, and neither are they. It's a description, nothing more.
I agree with Don Aitkin; I'm also fascinated by accents, and the extraordinary variations even in English/American/Australian. 'Strine' sounds relatively homogeneous (to my ear) compared to the local variations in England or America, yet there are subtle differences. Decades ago, it was easy to pick northern Qlders, ending every sentence with “Eh?” Tasmanians use the word 'cordial' to describe soft drink, and insist that 'au' be pronounce 'Oh' (as in “loncestan”). Since I haven't been everywhere it is inevitable that there are local accents I can't recognise. Is it permissible to ask white Anglo Australians where they're from, on the basis of their accent, or is that culturally insensitive? (Assuming the questioner is also AA, of course.)
I would strongly suggest the author grow a thicker skin.
Or “a pair”.
“Where ya from, mate” is just an ice breaker. Unless you're ashamed of your heritage, why should you care?
Incidentally, my sister is fascinated by our Irish/English/Portuguese/,/,/... roots.
I'm stuffed if I know why.

I have to say that I do often ask people where they've come from, not to put them down, but because I'm genuinely interested to learn about other countries and cultures.

My son-in-law is American - guess what was one of the first questions I asked him? "Oh really so you're from Missouri. And you've also spent part of your life in California. Wow, did you really have that experience near the Ozarks?"

During a lengthy train journey recently I sat next to a woman originally from England. Born in London, I learned after asking her. She was only to pleased to tell me of her life in London and Kent. Same with a family my child befriended from Bosnia - and the young girl from school we used to talk to at the bus-stop from Iraq or the fellow years ago that I chatted to who was a Vietnamese refugee.

Usually the interest is genuine and the intentions are honourable.

I find it pretty offensive that someone would call me a racist simply for showing an interest in someone else's origins. In fact I would call it a pretty racist thing to do. I know when holidaying in Turkish Cyprus and various south east Asian places I am frequently asked where I am from as my white skin sets me apart from the majority population. However, in my experience the only reason these people ask is because they are trying to be friendly and start a conversation and perhaps even have a genuine interest. I have never considered such enquiries to be racist. Perhaps I was wrong and these people were actually getting at me because I'm white. Perhaps Ramesh could enlighten me as to whether such enquires are racist when made by people with brown skins or only it the enquirer is white.