SHONGA, your charientism is appreciated but fails to move me. You should welcome diverse comments because they present a chance to test your own thoughts. The perceived shallowness of some opinions may be a sign of fatigue at seeing the same old tropes trotted out.

To Meg

Your article was an attack on the attitudes of Australians towards immigrants. So you can hardy complain if we the aggrieved don’t chuck your superior attitude right back in your face. You seem to think that it is reprehensible for Australians to unquestioningly accept a white New Zealand “boat person” but not a “refugee” “boat person” from Afghanistan.

Every race, creed and culture on this planet is far more accepting of immigrants from within their own cultural, ethnic and racial group. And I do not understand how you do not instinctively understand this or how you think that it is an in way wrong. People prefer to live amongst people who they consider are their own kith and kin and with whom they feel safe with. That is a cultural universal. It is not some psychological disease intrinsic to the white race.

It is as plain as the nose on your face that some ethnicities and races are noted for ther criminal behaviour while the Muslim religion in particular is noted for it’s extreme hostility to non believers. People from these particular cultures can hardly be expected to be welcome immigrants.

But people from related races and cultures who have Australian standards of behaviour and who have Protestant European philosophies on such controversial topics on abortion, divorce, birth control, individual freedoms, and the separation of church and state, are obviously more acceptable immigrants than people from cultures which oppose these concepts. Multiculturalism has been a disaster in every society cursed with it, and some countries are ungovernable because of it. Why you, as a presumably intelligent woman, want Australia to emulate self evident failure is beyond me.

It is a pity that you say that this will be your only response on this topic. I presume it is because you are terrified of putting your silly humanitarian ideals up against an informed opponent who will tear them to peices. Go and run and hide, Meg. I will deal with your PC indoctrinated acolytes instead.

Indeed Meg

<<I’m white, middle-class, non-religious, was born in (New Zealand)>>

Lets look more closely at this, and 'why' you would not experience any 'hasssles' due to your ethnicity or religion.

1/ White+English speaking = basic socio/cultural compatability.

2/ Non Religious. = Not likely to wish to set up an 'IslamicState' in Australia (though some seem to be giving it a good shot)

3/ Middle Class ...some inherited Wealth from broken treaties ?

4/ From New Zealand. Sadly, the above actually point to the outrageous and inhumane treatment of Indigneous Maoris through the blantant and opportunistic breaking of the Treaty of Waitangi, in part due to the capitalistic pressure from greedy and and unconcienable Australians-one man in particular.

So, its quite possible your actual 'existence' is immoral (due to a state founded on 'greed' and the exploitation of others) and 'illegal' due to the broken treaty.

The same goes for many of we Australian.

MEG, There are 3 lessons to be learnt from the historical background of both Australia and New Zealand.

1/ Due to the fact of this generation also being victims of history, we cannot really change things much. but we CAN seek to put right as much of what our forebears put wrong as possible !

2/ Any fool can see that allowing 'large numbers of foreigners' into their country is cultural/social suicide. You and I are living testimony to this fact.

3/ It is still possible to enjoy a wonderful fulfilling life for both indigenous and non indigenous people, through a

-recognition of history, a
-redeeming of our attitudes, and
-renewal of our hearts.

Atheism offers us nothing on this score -Lack of enduring valid moral foundations leads to either 'sentimental' fondness for supposed 'good' (Humanism) or... to a nihilistic existential brutality which saw the Waitangi treaty broken.

National repentance, humility and faith in Christ will indeed bring the Kingdom of God into our land, 'in our hearts'. The government will then begin to reflect this individual renewal. The power of national repentance is ound in the story of the Welsh revival of 1904.
http://www.welshrevival.com/lang-en/1904history.htm

OK Bronwyn. Let’s see the evidence that “Most Australians don’t know or want to know what is really going on under the guise of protecting their borders.” I think that if you did have properly referenced evidence which can be checked, you would have provided it already and not worried about whether or not I was interested. I don’t think Jung could analyse you, Bronwyn. I certainly don’t have the slightest idea what makes Australia-bashers like you tick; don’t think that I could live with the horror of finding out. If Australia every really needs defending, I hope you are in front of me and not behind.

Shonga. Someone who names himself after an ancient African witchdoctor whose followers removed body parts from still living people to cure their friends is calling me, Sage and Redneck neo-Nazis? Bronwyn is an intelligent human being? We are trying to intimidate? Get a grip!

And don’t try to fool us into thinking that you believe that we, or anyone else, are entitled to an opinion different from yours. You and your friend Bronwyn are two of the three regulars here who certainly do not believe that and denigrate others with name-calling.

If you and those of your ilk wish to spout nonsense, find yourself a nice little chat room where they write in the equivalent of grunts.

Meg asks, "...as a citizen of this country, a land settled by boat people, I’m still wondering: who does the Prime Minister mean when he says “we”?"

"We" are those who hear and respond to dog-whistle politics, Meg, and there's been no shortage of it.

The federal government has quietly but surely been dismantling the concept of multiculturalism since it came to power in 1996, finding more political traction in concepts such as the 'battlers', 'ordinary Australians', and the 'silent majority'.

John Howard's tacit approval of Pauline Hanson's maiden speech in that same year, when she claimed Australia was "in danger of being swamped by Asians", set the ball rolling. In 2001 it was determined Muslims were the kind of people who would toss their children into the sea. There has always been always an element of racism in Australia, starting with the Chinese on the goldfields and subsequent White Australia policy in the mid-1800's. Postwar it was the Europeans with their funny food and pronunciations. In the 70's it was the Vietnamese; in the 80's, the Chinese again.

Since September 11 2001 it has taken minimal effort for our government to maintain a sizeable groundswell of resentment towards foreigners, anyone not 'one of us', especially any who dare question our priorities. Many responses on this page illustrate this - " Multiculturalism has been a disaster in every society cursed with it, and some countries are ungovernable because of it." Australia has been a multicultural country since 1788; we'd be living of kangaroo meat & macadamia nuts had it not been so. At least the author had the gumption to log on with an appropriate username.

Immigration issues facing Australia and New Zealand are currently very similar. How to accommodate a large range of foreign cultures and ideas in a homogenous society fearful of 'the other' and the unknown. Though national borders are the key to the regulation of who enters the country this is only half the story. Our attitude to those who do is what makes the resulting community function.

Correction - there has always been an element of racism in Australia, government-sponsored or otherwise, starting with the recognition of terra nullis. The persecution of Catholic convicts and immigrants in our settlement years carried on for generations. I would suggest racism is an unfortunate acquired attitude in every society, though I would welcome any argument that says otherwise.