Robert and ronnie peters,
Gosh, I hope you blokes do not think ALL aspects of ALL cultures should be allowed here. Some cultures have some pretty weird practices, and some are quite alien to our society.

What do you think about allowing incest, pediphillia, eating dog or dolphin meat, FGM, cockfighting or bull fights.

As we currently do not allow some aspects that are important to some cultures, how can we claim to be multicultural.

where do you think a line should be drawn, if at all.

I agree, some cultures do have some pretty weird practices.

There's one culture I am aware of that lets kids as young at primary schoolers think it is being adult and grown up to drink alcohol till they pass out on the school ovals at night (who sells it to them?); to smoke cigarettes like their heroes on screen and at home do; to dress like the latest Slutney Spears or Aguillera music video; to be paid to move out of home and live with their high school boyfriends; that thinks 'schoolies' and 'leavers' is a decent and perfectly acceptable way to celebrate leaving school even though virtually no-one there is legally able to drink alcohol.

That's so proud of their own culture they have to create rap and hip-hop music, Eat nothing but Macca's, KFC and pizza and chips while swigging on a Coke (from Australia of course! Coca-cola have bought out every original Aussie State soft-drink company (Gest, Kirks, etc.)that Cadbury-Schweppes left them).

The same culture that makes screen heroes out of violent killers and car theives who then show how cool it is to break every road law ever made and which inspire thousands of underskilled drivers and bike riders to emulate those same feats on our roads.

The same culture that thinks we need road bikes that can do three hundred clicks and pop mono's (Woooo Hooooo!)

Oh Sure we have LAWS against that kind of thing - like Aussie culture and history has encouraged us keeping to the letter of the law.

But then we have laws against almost everything here don't we - that's one of the things that makes this country so great, we so love all our laws.

Not like those weirdo's in other whacky countries that have religious and secular laws against alcohol consumption.

Dipsticks.

Robert,
Intelligent comment. So far, no-one has made any alteration to the list of Aussie Values we helped create!

A few things - BrainDrain... you're going to extremes there. Those things happen, but they aren't condoned by most. If you're going to rail against that, rail against parents who try to avoid responsibility.

Overall, I think most of this paranoia over migrants is just that - paranoia, though there will be cases where a little assisted integration would be fruitful.

I think if we can just stop pigeonholing this whole integration/values debate and avoid the extreme elements on both ends who are hijacking it for political and ideological reasons, we could come up with a logical solution - which simply put, isn't asking migrants to reject their culture totally (and note here that if their culture conflicts with our laws it's a non issue - we have laws for that, and that's where that attention should be focused, making sure the law is applied) but asks that they embrace the Australian culture as well, and helps them to do so.

TRTL

Now just you cut that out!

If you're going to start talking sense here you're going to lower the tone of this entire 200 plus post thread!

Glad you spotted my ridicule of the other extremists, who are too blind to see past their own fundamental orifices, by presenting the logical reverse of their argument back at them.

ALL cultures (including whatever we think 'ours' is) have their sick elements and Australian laws are designed to reject those and support our 'ideals' even if we ourselves cannot or just fail to support those ideals as a whole - the laws fail miserably of course as our overcrowded and underrepresented jails clearly show, but we have to try something to prevent anarchy from within.

We reject some foreign elements, while accepting an entire spectrum from other nations as diverse as America and Zimbabwe.

I claim that makes us in a sense multicultural. Perhaps multi-semi-cultural better fits the description of us here in Oz?

I SEE THE LIGHT......

Roberts comments about 'which' is our culture, and his little dig at one of my previous posts, which he seems to be obsessed about these days :) plus all the discussion about values etc.. and the good and bad in various cultures ... all say ONE thing.

We should make more effort to identify the values we wish to promote in our country and actually PROMOTE them in schools clubs and social organizations.

Lets take ONE thing. 'Respect for elders'... why not take this on board and inculcate this at the personal interaction level. Students will address teachers as 'Sir, Miss, Mz' etc. They will address adults as "Mr_name" Miss_name Mrs_name"
Now these things are from the 50s yes..but they are good things.
All Asian cultures have this.

There are many things in our existing culture which can be enhanced and specifically promoted. Best and FAIRest is another, which is quite uniquely 'Australian' (its not British nor is it American.)

We could also teach against 'tribalism' and how this is not acceptable in Australia.

It just takes some political will power.

and I ALSO SEE THE DARKNESS.....

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20879483-2702,00.html

Muslim boys in Melbourne from an Islamic school urinate on, spit on, and burn a Bible at a school camp.

Yep.. 'MultiCulturalism' is hard at work here :)

"That they (migrants) may be free to practice their culture" etc....

Well, sadly, this IS the "culture" of many Muslim migrants.

So.. how could Immigration weed them out ?

By knowing the general prevailing attitude of the country of origin regarding Chrisians, the Bible and Christian symbols generally. Also by making some enquiries about their family background similar to what would be done for assylum seekers.

Countries can be graded on a scale of 'friendly' to 'hostile'.
If applicants are from one graded 'Hostile', then the visa application goes into the circular file. (unless they are Christians or secularists escaping from persecution.)

Lets make it 300 :)