The once dreaded ‘M’ word, as former prime-minister John Howard used to refer to it, is back! Multiculturalism is official government policy again after the concept was re-embraced in a watershed speech by Immigration Minister Chris Bowen on Tuesday at the Sydney Institute.
Talking to Neos Kosmos Mr Bowen said, “Supporting multiculturalism is the right thing to do and it’s important to tell the the story of how good it has been for Australia.”
He added that support for the policy had been “overwhelming in the party and was unanimous”.
Amidst the denunciation of multiculturalism by the Prime Minister of Britain, David Cameron, and Germany’s Chancellor, Angela Merkel, Mr Bowen and his Parliamentary Secretary Kate Lundy affirmed the Gillard government’s support for the “genius of Australian multiculturalism”.
The Immigration Minister rejected European notions of multiculturalism and highlighted Australia’s unique model, which as he said was “built differently to other models around the world”.
He pointed to the Australian and Canadian models of multiculturalism, which were seen as the world’s pioneers of multicultural policy, unlike models in Europe where immigrants were guest workers with no rights or obligations and were expected to assimilate at the expense of their identities and culture.
Mr Bowen emphasised Australia’s “citizenship-based multiculturalism” where all citizens enjoy the full benefits of Australian society.
Reciting the Australian Citizenship Pledge, which Mr Bowen regards as “the most beautiful citizenship pledge in the world”, he said all new citizens are required to pledge loyalty to Australia and its people; to agree to the democratic rights, liberties and obey the laws of this land.
The policy was introduced nine months after the Australian Multicultural Advisory Council, led by AFL boss Andrew Demetriou, submitted its recommendations to the federal government.
Mr Bowen referenced Whitlam Government Minister Al Grasby as a pioneer of multiculturalism as well as former Liberal and Labor Prime Ministers Malcolm Fraser and Paul Keating, when talking about the importance of multiculturalism as a social gel.
He announced his new vision amidst furore over the government paying for asylum-seekers to attend family members’ funerals. Mr Bowen told the Sydney Institute that it had become “fashionable to blame multiculturalism for terrorism,” but the Australian experience was different.
When asked by Neos Kosmos if he was seeking bipartisan support for the policy Mr Bowen said: “I hope for bipartisanship multiculturalism was not a Labor or Liberal policy, it was not exclusively Labour, I hope that the Liberal gets back on board – its important for the nation that major political parties support a policy like multiculturalism.”
Mr Bowen said that multiculturalism is about “respect”. He told Neos Kosmos that “Multiculturalism is about respecting those who have come here and their culture, as much as it is about respecting Australian traditional values.”
He also said in his policy speech that Australians should be concerned about extremism “whether Islamic or otherwise (but) to cast all Islamic migrants or all members of any religious group as somehow unworthy of their place in our national community, however, tars the many with the extremist views of the very few and does an injustice to all.”
While key areas of the policy were left vague, the government will be advancing a cross-portfolio national anti-racism strategy, long demanded by the multicultural advocacy sector.
Mr Bowen said Australia has benefited from multiculturalism and is a more confident nation because of it.
The multiculturalism push comes after Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said, on Australia Day, he was ”reluctant to use the term”.
The Howard government first dropped the official use of the term multiculturalism, however critics point to the fact that during last year’s election, Labor shied away from a multiculturalism policy, sensitive to western Sydney voter perceptions of special treatment.
It also dropped the term from Senator Lundy’s title under a Gillard reshuffle.
Mr Bowen rejected the view that Julia Gillard’s reluctance to support population growth in the last election was a dog-whistle to those against multiculturalism.
“Talking about population is not a lack of commitment to multiculturalism it just means that we have to be prepared in terms of infastructure and services for population growth. The Labor Party has always had support for multiculturalism”
The Minister went on to say that he hopes that race should never be a political issue, and that “freedom and respect should be the essence of the political discussion in this country”.
Over 40 percent of all Australians had a parent born overseas or were born overseas themselves.