Loudmouth, I have already experienced what you predict for yourself. Lovely children, with many different backgrounds, but all Australians.

I, myself ancestors all came here pre 1985. My childrens's father goes back even further, to the ships that arrived on the 26th. Yes, they were convicts that made good.

My background is Irish, both north and south, a little French and English. My husband's family, English and Irish. They came as convicts, free settlers and business people. All made good lives for themselves. All managed to achieve.

My children, and grandchildren have married from Indigneous, Islanderer, South American, German, along with more Irish blood. I must not forget those who married into families, who have been as long in this country, as our family.

Yes, those backyard barbecues are indeed mini United Nations. I have no Asian, or African, but matters not, as they are also found there. Yes, they come as friends of my family.

What has changed over the years, is the food that is consumed. Nothing like the food of my youth, and believe me, my mother was a wonderful cook, we ate well.

Contrary to what people say, multi-culturism works. Why should it not.


All cultures are about family, work and getting ahead.

I suspect that twenty or thirty years down the track, people reading our history, will wonder what the culture wars are about. By then people will move during their lifetime, all over the globe. Borders will have little meaning.

Dear Jay,

Read the link I gave you.

You just might recognise yourself.

Foxy, I've read the link and I don't see myself in that stereotype, like all stereotypes it's simply a straw man, the "Debate" is launched from false premises such as the mythical"Red Blooded Ocker". I come from a upbringing of extremely Liberal, left leaning thought,my father is a founding member of his Greens branch I believed all the things you believe until I saw with my own eyes what this society had become.
Read Is Mise' post, my original draft of the response to Banjo began "Real Australia died in 1914" but it was late and I didn't feel much like explaining what I meant so I re wrote it.
Australia has been a grandiose Liberal Democratic project, it could have achieved it's aims had it kept the immigration restriction act, we could have had an egalitarian society but for mass immigration.
Believe me, I want a free egalitarian society and am happy to live as a Liberal but the personnel being recruited from the Third world do not share those views and simply renovate whole blocks and parts of suburbs as habitat suitable for their own way of life, which for the most part is based on the lifestyle of the American Ghetto Negro.
You see when you have no mainstream culture to pass on to young people they find another one and bolt it onto their parents identity, people can't live and develop normally without a clearly defined national and ethnic identity.
If you think you can live freely and reason with with pentecostal Christian Africans and Asians, Salafist Muslims or wannabe Tupac clones hopped up on steroids and meth you're dreaming and you've obviously had very little interaction with such people of the lower castes. You don't live among the negativity in insecurity of the poor suburbs and you don't have to send your kids out into that environment every day, otherwise you wouldn't be posting the silly things you do.

Dear Jay,

Many people take for granted the cultural mix that
is Australia's population. I have grown up being
surrounded by people from a variety of countries
and backgrounds and by getting to know this wide
mix of people - I learned of
the ups and down of adapting to life in Australia.
As well as from the experiences that my own parents and
their friends provided.

For me it provided a window on the experience of leaving
one home in order to create another. Confounded
expectations, culture shock, conflicting national
loyalties and a search for belonging - all these themes
emerged in their anecdotal, sometimes amusing collection
of experiences that I gleaned from them about making a
new life in Australia.

To me, the multicultural nature of Australian society means
there is a gathering of many cultures, and as I've writen in
the past - this is one of the most unique and rewarding aspects
of living in Australia. I'll repeat, that the nature of being
Australian is to be part of this diversity. You may think that's
silly, but that says more about you than it does about me.
BTW - I grew up in the Western suburbs of Sydney. My profession
is that of a Librarian, and I've worked in Special Libraries,
University Libraries, and large Regional
Public Libraries - where I have had to deal with a wide variety
of people from various backgrounds and nationalities. I've
organised Book-Clubs, ran Storytime Sessions, and provided
Reference Services. Multi-skilling and hands on interaction
with people from various walks of life has always been part
and parcel of the job. I come from a Liberal-voting, conservative family,
My political preferences vary, depending on policies.
We have an excellent State Liberal MP - who works very hard
and who I fully support. I have voted Liberal in the past -
but not recently.

Foxy,
I know the situation of Third world migrants in regional areas in some detail and you're correct in saying that when hand picked first generation migrants who've been carefully vetted beforehand are placed under what amounts to 24 hour supervision and on call mentoring by local volunteers that the results you speak of are attainable. That's only a tiny fraction of the whole picture though, maybe 75% of Third World migrants are clustered in poor suburbs with no support, where the only mentoring they and more importantly their children will receive is from other generationally poor and criminally inclined families.
In the poor areas "Racism" does not exist, people are genuinely judged by the content of their character and assimilated, it's just that the values of those sub cultures described above don't match those of your good self or those implicit in the thread title.
Foxy as I said, I can see both sides of the argument because I've walked both sides of the line, so to speak, I can even concede some points of "Social Justice" but it's too late now to really do anything about the problem, stopping immigration won't make any difference, increasing it won't help, you can't mentor people who won't listen or educate people who won't even learn to read.

I went to war (a few times) because I loved this country and what it stood for.
Now I am saddened because all I did was make it open slather, thanks to Whitlam etc for foreign elements that want to dictate and control my grandchildren's inheritance.
Shove multiculturalism