I was recently accused of being a “serial multicultural apologist” in response to an earlier article on parallels between Australian Sharpie (and other gangs of the past) and so-called Sudanese gangs.

It made me think. Each year Australia is becoming more multicultural.

The 2016 Census showed 33 per cent of Australian residents were born overseas and a further 16 per cent had at least one parent born overseas.
That’s almost half the population.

More than 20 per cent also spoke a language other than English at home. Yet support for multiculturalism is under pressure here and overseas. In Europe there has been a significant retreat from multiculturalism policies.

Fascist parties now sit in parliaments in Germany and Austria.

In Australia, knee-jerk reactions to so-called African gangs and Muslims are gaining momentum.

Let’s be plain. There has always been an ugly racist streak among a minority of Australians but it has become more brazen, more political and infected many other Australians.

Entire ethnic groups are labelled as criminals, terrorists, welfare bludgers and so on. This is being used, if not encouraged, by some politicians and political parties. It is something new, ugly, and dangerous.

Pauline Hanson has, for years, tried to tap into underlying fear and racism for political gain, first by declaring that we were being “swamped” by Asians and later that Islam was a “disease”.

It’s no surprise that the proportion of Australians perturbed by Islam has risen from 25 per cent to 41 per cent in two years according to one study.

Before I’m attacked as a Lefty apologist, let me be clear. I don’t like that many Muslim women are overtly or covertly pressured to wear head or face coverings. I don’t like the political correctness of the inner city Left (especially the Greens) who perversely try to argue that the wearing of such head coverings is an expression of freedom.

I am concerned by the penetration of fundamentalist Islam into politics in places like Iran, Turkey, and Indonesia.
And I have little time for criminal behaviour of any kind, be it from Africans, Asians, Mexicans, Muslims, Caucasians or anyone else. Such behaviour should be called out and dealt with decisively and appropriately.
But to friends from established communities who have condemned the ethnic group rather than the behaviour, I have this to say.

It was not that long ago that Greeks were labelled as “compo cheats” and Italians as “mafiosi”. All back compensation claims were then “a Greek back claim”.
Lebanese, Latin Americans, Chinese and others have all had to wear similar labels.

But derogatory labelling by culturally insular individuals was not blatantly used for political benefit by politicians. That is what is new.

Peter Dutton and Malcolm Turnbull have allowed, if not promoted, the labelling of young Sudanese as “home invaders” for political purposes. I notice they have not come out as readily to condemn the Caucasian thugs who beat up an old man in a pub recently.

As I have said, gangs of all types have always been a feature of Melbourne life.

There are many people angered by anyone who says we need sensitive approaches to solving the complex issues around the criminal behaviour of some African youth. Many have tried to make this a Labor-versus-Liberal election issue.

To me those people are being sucked in by people prepared to tap into their antipathy for other races.

Hanson and her ilk hate the fact there has been mass migration from more than 100 countries to Australia and they want it stopped. If they could, they would send them back.

Dutton, on the other hand, is happy to have migration levels running at record levels to keep the economy ticking over.

But he is also happy to negatively label minority ethnic groups and send a few of them back or keep them in jails for political gain.

Sensible Australians will see through these ham-fisted attempts to secure their votes by playing on fear and prejudice.

I have confidence in Australian values prevailing. I believe Australian Muslims, Africans, Asians and so on in their second and third generations will become more like us – easygoing, sport-loving, cherishing our freedoms, and supporters of equal rights for men, women, and all ethnic groups.

Research by the Scanlon Foundation has found already that 92 per cent of respondents born in non-English-speaking countries agreed that maintaining the Australian way of life was important, especially in the modern world. This is cause for optimism.

That is the Australia that a commitment to multiculturalism can bring about. It’s one where we fix antisocial or criminal behaviour without resorting to ethnically-charged abuse.

Before we abandon multiculturalism to the alternative of segregation, deportation, inhumane treatment of refugees, and labelling ethnic groups for political purposes, we should think about what we are losing.

*Theo Theophanous is a former State minister and commentator – this story has appeared in the Herald Sun and is being published in Neos Kosmos courtesy of the author.