Here we go again .
( where does Graham find them all ? )

Please do not confuse MC with circuses for the masses, which is basically what all the MC parades & festivals are.

Real MC is deeper & more sinister:
i) It endeavours to entrench old identities & with it by default, old enmities.
ii) It impacts on our “liberties”- it influences & in a growing number of cases, dictates, what is allowed to be taught in our education institutions & the way it is taught -how we are allowed to express ourselves in the media & at work places.
iii) Its a drain on the public purse -I’m in position where I see many special language broadcasting services ( not SBS -but smaller concerns) - take hand outs of public money -go broke & come back again for a second or third time for more handouts.

And as for:
1“:Multiculturalism in Australia has demonstrated that our diversity is a value that makes us unique.” (?)
Singapore markets itself as multicultural, as does Malaysia,as does India , Indonesia . If one was a tourist, it is doubtful if one would visit Australia to experience the 'wonders' of MC.

2“It is in our food, Chinatown and Little Italy. It is in our art, our poetry and paintings. our multiculturalism”
How many times have I heard this -people have to read a little more widely than those glossy MC publicity brochures -printed in 103 languages at tax payers expense.Japan has some of the best non-Japanese restaurants & chefs in the world,& owns some noteworthy art collections, but is still resolutely monocultural.

Declaration of interest :
My wife is Chinese
My children speak mandarin & cantonese,
And we all see MC as a con

Have a nice day!

Frank, you say you support multiculturalism and that those of us who do not (myself included) are misinformed. Therefore, please define what multiculturalism means in terms of its impact on law, civil liberties and culture, so that we can get rid of the name calling and discuss multiculturalism on a common understanding of what the term means when applied to gov't policy.

Also, let's stop making a bogeyman out of "Western values". No culture can claim to be perfect, but if there is one thing that Western culture has got right, it is that it believes in democracy, freedom of speech and religion, and the rights of the individual. Find me another culture which has those values at its core and then we can discuss whether Western values should be privileged over other cultural values.

Well said Boaz.

I am not quite sure about the outrage at Tamworth is all about. Tamworth have the right to refuse the imposition of migrants from incompatible cultures like Sudan into their small town by the government.Why would refugees want to live out there anyway? The real reason why African refugees are being spread out across the country is to avoid the creation of impoverished ghettoes typical in other parts of the world. This strategy of spreading out immigrants also highlights the importance of Anglo stock as the essential glue to Australian society. If this were not the case, any nationality could set up a city on its own and become prosperous. Instead migrants need to be welded onto pre-existing Anglo society. This is assimilition not multiculturalism.Sorry Jieh-Yung Lo, a rubbish article.

While pollies distort the language to send approving messages to bigots I suppose we need articles like this.
It's impossible to argue that Australia has been anything but multicultural in recent centuries.
It's the "-ism" on the end that confuses some of us.
I've read dozens of definitions of multiculturalism and never read anything that encourages anyone to put their “allegiances to original culture ahead of national loyalty”. Ridiculous. The possibility that some group somewhere believes this doesn't negate the intent of the various policies around the country. The narrow mindset of the current idealogues in Canberra also causes them to believe such childish distortions as most teachers being "marxists" and that listening to the ABC causes you to be indoctrinated with a leftist ideology.
Silly sausages.
Of course we have benefited hugely from the contribution of multilingual migrants. This should not need to be said and I never want to return to the Ozzie culture of the 1940s I remember so well. It's good to see some of the "values" of that culture disappearing into obscurity.

Re Henery :
“This should not need to be said and I never want to return to the Ozzie culture of the 1940s I remember so well. It's good to see some of the "values" of that culture disappearing into obscurity“

Even if Australia had not adopted (had imposed) MC.
It is a certainty that the Australia of 2007 would not have been the same Australia of 1940.

The Japan of 2007 is a much better place than the Japan of 1940, 1950 or 1960
The Sth Korea of 2007 is not the Sth Korea of 1940.
(but they don’t owe it to MC!)

You don’t need MC to change -to modernise -or even to diversify.

“Multiculturalism in Australia has demonstrated that our diversity is a value that makes us unique”

Yes, uniquely stupid.

“We have had a very successful migration program where we have welcomed more than six million people since World War II and provided them with the opportunity to begin a new life and contribute to the making of this great country.”

Excessive immigration since WWII has scarred the environment, caused extinction of native fauna, ruined the lot of aborigines, introduced plant and animal pests, polluted our oceans, polluted our fresh water and now there is not even enough fresh water to go around. Each migrant that comes here costs the country enormously in terms of the energy and infrastructure needed to support their lifestyle. Most immigrants, especially ones from developing countries have a very mean understanding of our ecology and respect it even less. Economically the benefits of immigration are zero. Thanks to immigration housing affordability has never been worse. In Sydney an average income will not allow you to buy a reasonable house, let alone rent one. How is that a great country? I could go on and on, but I don’t have the time.

“Recent events in Tamworth and Cronulla suggest racist elements still exist in some quarters. My fear, as an individual who is part of one of the most successful multicultural societies in the world today, is that our society is changing for the worse.”

Yes it is getting worse – thanks to multiculturalism. Had Lebanese and black African migrants never come here, there would never have been riots in Cronulla, nor objections to Sudanese in Tamworth. Both the beforementioned countries have been unstable for many decades. What hope is there that migrants from broken down countries will better Australia? Mushy is the right word.