I believe in diversity, people should be free to live their lives with as much individual diversity as they want.

I also believe in the idea of a social contract:

That is: citizens of Australia have a contract with Australian society. Australian society tries to offer its citizens equality before the law, equality of access to public services, equality of opportunity regardless of sex, creed, colour or ethnicity. I know that some see these as goals rather than the present situation, but let’s take a look at the other side.

Diversity does not mean imposing your values or morality on another person: It means that you cannot call a woman a whore because of what she wears. It means that if your sister, daughter or mother, or their friends, want to go topless on a beach then that is up to them - not you: You live in Australia now - get used to it.

It means respecting other freedoms – like the freedom to marry who you want to without pressure or coercion from others.

It means that you cannot claim any advantage or privilege over any person on the basis of ethnicity. It also means that you should not expect the society to pay for your desire to be diverse – celebrate diversity if and when you want – but don’t expect others to pay for it, if your culture is important to you – then you pay for it.

It means accepting that the laws of Australia are written in English, as is its constitution. It means therefore accepting that if you want to be a party to this social contract then you should try to understand the language of the contract.

If you expect Australia to be loyal to you then you must be loyal in return: for instance, when an Australian sports team is playing another country's team, you support Australia - not the team of your cultural origin. If a team from your culture of origin is playing another country’s team – fine – but either support Australia or don’t consider yourself as Australian.

Migrants moving between countries? What are you talking about, they all flock to the civilised western world from hellholes where discrimination on the basis of one's religion or ethnicity is a way of life.

As for Australia having many people and a strong foundation, sorry, wrong again. It's only the white European Australians, on the whole, that join the police, the fire brigade, military, and special emergency services.

This says to me that most don't want to be part of this country.

You are wrong that we are multicultural too, Australia doesn't have seperate legal systems, we would never accept barbaric Sharia, or Islamic law to govern us, where women are worth half the value of a man in court, and need four male witnesses if raped.

What holds this nation together, unfortunately, is white Europeans. Without the morality of Europe, this place would be chaos. We've already seen clan murders among the Lebanese Muslim community on a scale unprecedented in this peaceful nation.

Cabramatta-Fairfield in 1994 was home to the largest Medicare fraud in our history, with 1/3 of the medical professionals in the area involved in a scam to rort the government.

There is little goodwill in such communities, which is why one can have heroin openly available in the street, being sold by twelve year olds.

This would never happen in a community where Europeans dominated, parents would call the police.

Sorry, but this essay was just rehashing the nonsense that we aren't swallowing anymore. All migrants can offer Australia is their food, we don't want their backward moral codes here. Racist to suggest that we should all live under principles arrived at through logic, like human rights?

Good luck in convincing me of that.

We see through the crap you know. I am yet to meet a migrant whp truly considers this place their "real" country, they are still Greek-Australians, not Australians.

Why is it only the English, Irish, and Scottish who, when their rugby or cricket teams come out, don't wave their flags like that embarressing display of Greek nationalism during the Soceroos last game before the world cup?

They are the only ones who truly consider themselves Australians, that's why.

To many, this place is just a bank to educate your kids and wonder at how marvellous it is to live in a society where people don't hate those from the next street.

Australia is like this because of our culture. There is a reason dictators and not democratic governments exist in the middle-east, as Iraq is showing, the people are so racist, so tribal, they can't get along.

I would have to say that this is the worst article I may have seen here, and you obviously can't think very much.

How is it that the media create tension between communities by creating an "us and them" mentality again?

It isn't the extremists who have done this? And Islamic leaders by praising terrorism? Don't they have any responsibility?

Isn't it funny that people come here from nations where discrimination is a way of life, where women can't vote or leave the house without a male relative, where tribal violence is part of life, where there are caste systems for crying out loud, and dictate to us about racism?

Mercurious,
nice to know you’ve recently joined the ‘missionary police’ :)
You misrepresented my position, -let me clarify. I was involved in a role which included technical training of an indigenous person, and the ‘preaching’ or.. teaching at various times to already converted people who had of their own volition sought out missionaries themselves, because they saw from the evidence among related people how lives can change in Christ, and they desired this relationship.
Your ‘mosaic’ thoughts are appreciated. I suggest though, that a definite “Australian” culture had already emerged from those groups in Australia prior to WW2.

SKhan
The issue is the “principle” of linguistic discrimination against Australians, something definitely ethnocentric and as close as it gets to outright racial discrimination.

Irrespective of how much of a beat up it might be by ‘heavies’ or of ‘degree’ in the SMH, or their mis-contextualization of your own remarks, the issue is still this important principle. Not my lack of spelling ability. (This is called ‘playing the man’...cultural note ).

On the point of ‘evidence’ for the Muslim youth Counselor and the claims he made, it was on National TV. I saw it and heard it, from his mouth (as did the whole of viewing Australia), and reported it faithfully in my post. He interacts with large numbers of Muslim youth, so he does speak with some authority.

Even if it was ‘one’ Asian Video shop, (I saw the size of the sign) and some friction between the Chamber, which you link with ‘anti Asian’ sentiment, it does not alter the point of sound signage policy for Australia.

It should be a Federal issue.

If your real but misreported point was being against the translation of EVERY bit of ethnic language on product labeling, I suggest kindly that English should be mandatory also. Especially on medicinal products. We have a national language for good reason. ”Social harmony and interaction” rather than ethnocentric isolationism.
I would not dare to assume you are against the non racist facilitation of harmonious interaction and communication between ethnic groups... are u?

HAMLET/Thermistocles... superb posts :) !

Multiculturalism is good for Australia: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20646437-601,00.html
Are these comments by a Muslim leader another niche benefit of MC? Lets all embrace diversity!

Mercurius when describing a group of people as a whole like I did for European’s you tend to include the UK as its part of Europe.
Stop your quibbles and answer the question Mercurius!

From the reading of those in favour of MC they all seam to have a view that we live in a perfect world and in a perfect world everyone will get along. Unfortunately we don’t live in a utopia we live on the planet earth where there is still much chaos. I think people who are not pro MC are realist and know that we live in a very lucky country and want to protect ourselves from the strife that still resides in much of the world. Is it wrong to protect ones family and friends from this? Europeans have shed much blood already sorting out our own problems with each other, now that we have created a successful and peaceful civilisation all the peoples of the world who have coward away from doing the same in there own parts of the world want to move in on us and not only bring their cultures but also their many problems.

Georgina. It is not politically correct to post this kind of article on OLO.

I think multiculturalism is a good. I always vote for politicians who adopt policies that further social harmony and understanding between different groups.

To those who assert that multiculturalism was imposed - aren't you the same people who talk of mandates, democracy and silent majority when it suits your position on other issues? If you want a monoculture, vote for an avowed monoculturalist.

One criticism of this article is that it mainly relates difference to race, religion and ethnicity. I think that often sub-cultural influences override the main cultural mores of society and even a small cultural group's orthodoxies may be challenged. For instance: I notice that a lot of Indigenous youths are influenced by "gangster-rap" type lyrics. The racists overlook this influence when the youth "acts out" in a negative way and it is Indigenous culture that is blamed for the behaviour even though it is affront to the person's Indigenous group. (One could also consider the recent events where boys abused a vulnerable girl and posted it on the net. Will their private-school background, Christianity, ethnicity be fore grounded or the “Jackass” culture?)

Mainstreamers are often not treated fairly either. For instance: people with tattoos, “sleeves” and weird hair dos are often discriminated against. If the same prejudiced behaviour was directed at a dark-skinned person, there would be claims of racism and there are avenues of complaint in place for them not available to others in society. This is a racist setup in itself. Racism is institutionalised to the point that it negates a fair go for people discriminated against on non-racial grounds.

The Hansonites intuitively used this failure to address unfairness on non-racial grounds to push their cultural supremacist ideas. (Ironically, those ideas encompassed an underlying racism which was relinquished on condition that the person adapt the same cultural mores of the group. This in part explains why One Nation followed the path of most monocultures and self destructed.)

Multiculturalism is a good but it must respect all differences to be fair.