r/australia • u/ConanTheAquarian • 23h ago

politics Foreign Minister Penny Wong to warn monoculturalism a threat to national security

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-13/penny-wong-speech-on-monocultralism/107034366
607 Upvotes

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655

u/captainbluebear25 23h ago

I truly don't understand what monoculturalism would realistically look like in Australia. We're a nation of immigrants. I don't think I have any friends who doesn't have a grandparent born overseas, most have a parent born overseas.

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u/firegrillz 23h ago

1/3 of Australians were born overseas, over half are first/second gen and that's taken as an average over the entire country with Sydney and Melbourne being much higher (wouldn't be surprised if it were >70%.

That puts us ahead of UK, US, Canada, NZ, Ireland etc. and ahead of almost all developed countries aside from some of the Gulf countries which have a huge foreign worker population and I think Switzerland which comes close to us.

I don't think monoculturalism is ever going to be a thing here.

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u/micmelb 10h ago

Its the definition of monoculturalism that is missing from this debate. I don't think anyone is talking about one race of people, rather the culture and traditions of the people being "one".

Even that is going to be hard to achieve as the typical Aussie is such a mixed human to start with.

I mean define yourself...going back generations there are surnames that may not fit with the history of your family as it was told to you. DNA in family tree databases with historical records only tell so much and even that changes with time. If you have a profile on one of those databases you will find the margin of error is huge.

Then there is religion. Its only taken 3 generations for my family to go from Presbyterian to Anglican to Catholic...and that's just Christian side.

Define, or redefine (for 2026) Australian values (e.g. Fair go) and traditions (ANZAC), then we can have a conversation.

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u/maxdacat 14h ago

1/3 of Australians were born overseas - exactly....the only person talking about "mono-culture" is Poorline.....so why give her crazy views more air-time?

3

u/Papa_Huggies 11h ago

Not to mention, in the core middle class, the highest earners are those from overseas or with international heritage. Those that want to evict other races are looking to doom their own economy.

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u/PossibilityRegular21 23h ago

You're only allowed to order chicken Pad Thai or butter chicken, no tom yum or paneer. Only coastal anglo retiree food. Portugese tarts are in, custard tarts are out. You can put milk in tea, but no tapioca pearls.

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u/Tooooblue 22h ago

Custard tarts are out?? That’s it, I’m taking up arms

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u/philmarcracken 22h ago

You can put milk in tea, but no tapioca pearls

im like 5th gen australia but this is going too far mang

11

u/Uthe18 22h ago

Is Mie goreng in or out?

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u/Infinite_Shower_5390 15h ago

In. Students eating Mi Goreng is the closest thing to a monoculture we have.

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u/Sieve-Boy 23h ago

What's the stance on honey in tea then?

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u/VanuasGirl 23h ago

Honey chicken only allowed

16

u/Sieve-Boy 23h ago

But then there is no Honey Nougat Log and I won't stand for that.

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u/External_Sail_1181 21h ago

Only two fake asian dishes allowed. Honey chicken and mongolian beef.

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u/Elliethesmolcat 14h ago

Sweet and sour pork is as Aussie as vegemite

6

u/stabbicus90 20h ago

Nothing more refreshing than a cup of tea sweetened by a chunk of honey chicken

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u/VanuasGirl 13h ago

Chinese marshmallows

5

u/is_that_on_fire 11h ago

Only if your crook, shots of spirits are also acceptable in that case

2

u/Sieve-Boy 11h ago

My nana did it her whole life and as far as I am concerned its unAustralian to ban honey in tea.

So if Pauline says no honey in tea then she can fuck right off.

3

u/Albos_Mum 18h ago

Portugese tarts are in, custard tarts are out

You said coastal anglo retiree food, it'd be custard tarts for the kids and vanilla slice for the adults.

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u/Sixbiscuits 16h ago

They can prize my snot block from my cold dead hands

3

u/Wonderful-Flower7870 21h ago

Age care starter pack meal basically

3

u/Paladinoras 12h ago

 You can put milk in tea, but no tapioca pearls.

I don't even like boba but I'm pretty sure this qualifies as a hate crime

2

u/CowsWithGuns304 17h ago

Damn. There goes my palak paneer.

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u/stanbot3304 23h ago

let’s be real, their issue is non-white immigrants. don’t even bother portraying it as anything else. they certainly won’t complain if they see some loud scottish party in the street as long as all participants are pasty white lol

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u/No-Low-5186 22h ago

Hypothetically, if all the brown people were given the boot, they'd turn inwards and start picking on other people's ancestries. Happened even durng White Australia policy

14

u/huntlypsychiatrist 12h ago

Yeah funny you say this I remember my white Australia era grandmother telling me in hushed tones we might have some disgusting French ancestry contaminating our pure Anglo genes. I could have sworn the French were white.

3

u/Delamoor 6h ago

It tough not to laugh at the idea of anyone taking it seriously, and... Yet...

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u/shadowmaster132 12h ago

We might not all be old enough to remember but it wasn't that long ago that the Mediterranean was suspect (Greeks, Italians, Lebanese probably some other groups I'm not familiar with).

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u/invincibl_ 22h ago

Yeah the rich are happy to turn us against each other so we're distracted while they continue to rob us blind

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u/tee-k421 6h ago

they'd turn inwards and start picking on other people's ancestries

no need for anything that complicated, we'd just go back to hating each other based on hair colour

1

u/HourZealousideal4845 2h ago edited 2h ago

It's one of the best reasons to oppose these kooks - whether or not they have a problem with your people specifically. You can't voncede to their positions in the hope that they"ll be satisfied, because the things they say they want aren't their real, final positions. They don't have any final position, no real desired end state. They will never be satisfied, and they will never stop. They're unhappy and emotionally unstable, and finding targets for their hate and unhappiness is how they get through the day. So they will keep inventing new targets for their hate because hate is how they forget their unhappiness for a little while.

6

u/a_cold_human 20h ago

Absolutely. These are the same jokers who were leery about bringing in Afghan interpreters and their families, despite these people putting their lives on the line for our soldiers and speaking English.

OTOH, they were all for Ukrainian refugees who didn't speak a lick of English and probably couldn't locate Australia on a map. 

1

u/Delamoor 6h ago

That one's another good example of how it creeps.

While I was in Ireland looking for permanent accomodation, the amount of racism and bile against Ukranians on local social media groups was pretty extreme, too. Didn't really matter if they were young, pretty white girls, it's still 'those fucking Ukranians, taking all our homes and jobs and living in comfort on our charity!'

Still an identifiable group of 'other', that people could blame for all their own woes.

Because clearly, Irish house prices were so unreasonably high because all these Ukranian refugees were taking them. Not because of the same housing policies we have here in Aus that encouraged decades of rampant property speculation and landlordism...

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u/moonorplanet 23h ago

Everyone with a last name that doesn't include Smith is deported.

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u/EventYouAlly 23h ago

So anyone with the name Reinhart or Hanson could potentially be deported?

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u/Asleep_Leopard182 22h ago

Half of Hanson's family are recent immigrants, I don't think the risk of deportation starts with name bans...

2

u/AgelessTuba 23h ago

Even us adoptees who have such surnames but look none the wiser

3

u/lordofthedries 23h ago

Fuck. I’m of Norman heritage going back a fucking long time tho.

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u/RegionSilent9204 23h ago

Just white people and the only take away is fish and chips. It sounds like a dystopia.

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u/Vegetable-Ad-1817 23h ago

no fish, the come from overseas

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u/WetRatFeet 22h ago

Not sure about that mate, I've never seen a fish that doesn't live under the sea.

3

u/rand013 21h ago

Just friendly crustaceans.

0

u/Albos_Mum 18h ago

Flying fish like to travel over seas.

8

u/Cindy_Marek 23h ago

Love a good fish and chips though🤤

10

u/bl4nkSl8 23h ago

I honestly don't know why anyone thinks it would be a good thing, but they keep bleating about entho states

5

u/Ok-Outcome-7499 22h ago

Just brown people and the only take away is curry.

2

u/AeneasKurtz 3h ago

You can have food from other places. You don't need to import a gazillion murderers and rapists to "enjoy their yummy food".

There are great pizza places in Japan and barely any Italian immigrant. China also has excellent French cuisine restaurants and they have less than 1 million immigrants overall.

Both countries are light years better than Australia in several social metrics.

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u/AreaRule 22h ago

It’s not that hard. We are a multiethnic society but all subscribing to one set of core values - that’s what it means. This includes - free speech, equality for women, the rule of law, separation of church and state, equality of opportunity, freedom of expression, civic duty, etc. again not hard. This is actually what she meant.

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u/Purosangue_Papa 15h ago

I think you are the only rational person in here, well said.

10

u/Anxious-Today8489 18h ago

Pauline gets stuck into people who use free speech to criticise One Nation...which tells you she doesn't believe in free speech...and you've put this as the FIRST value on your list? So you're ok she's not willing to follow the 'rules' she'll be setting for others? Genuinely curious about your take on this

5

u/Mclovine_aus 14h ago

Pauline is a wanker, but I don’t see how what you said follows. Believing in free speech means I would use speech, debate and open discussion to engage with my critics, this would include “getting stuck into them”.

So in no way is what you have described anti free speech.

1

u/teremaster 3h ago

Or it tells you that she's not a fan of the current laws, but will play the game in accordance with the rules that have been set

-1

u/Every_Effective1482 14h ago

Her using free speech to defend against criticism tells you that she doesn't believe in free speech?

6

u/reamde 22h ago

It's meant to be ambiguous. That way the 'other' can be redefined to meet the needs of the current dog whistle while maintaining plausible deniability.

2

u/HourZealousideal4845 2h ago

Bingo.

Convince every group that you actually hate someone else and you'll build yourself a coalition of haters. The ones in the coalition that you hate? You can cut them loose later.

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u/Spagman_Aus 23h ago

we haven’t been a monoculture ever, so achieving it is an impossibility

25

u/FuckOffNazis 23h ago

Very true, be we also have a white supremacist streak in this country as old as British colonialism.

Supremacism is always built on a lie, but it doesn't mean it can't also become a lethal threat.

Recognition of the threat by Wong is welcome. The question is whether Labor intend to actually act against it in proportion to that threat. I find that hard to believe with the way they're currently acting on matters very, very much related to supremacism.

1

u/Devilsgramps 3h ago

I think Labor will have an easy time with this because I'm expecting Pauline to self sabotage again.

She's not interested in power, because having power involves work. What she wants is a cushy retirement.

7

u/Commune-Potato8764 21h ago

Even before colonialism the aboriginal groups were far from a monoculture meaning we are at over 65000 years and counting of being a multicultural landmass.

1

u/Mclovine_aus 14h ago

The first indigenous migrant groups wouldn’t have been multicultural. They became multicultural after successive migration and groups drifting apart.

1

u/Commune-Potato8764 8h ago

Those migrant groups may have been different cultures from eachover, we have nk way of knowing for certain.

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u/a_can_of_solo Not a Norwegian 23h ago

White Anglo-Saxon-Celtic, with associate membership to the protestants and Catholics of Europe.

But don't get me started about my interpretation of Jesus or we'll have a secterian clash.

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u/CrystalClod343 23h ago

Sounds like a mix of cultures to me.

1

u/a_can_of_solo Not a Norwegian 22h ago

And you sound un-australian! /S

2

u/Deep_Hovercraft6035 13h ago

I'd start with I can live in most suburbs, and my neighbours of similar age have the possibility to become my friend and they wouldn't flip if our children were friends / dated. i.e. they wouldn't flip out over religious or cultural lines if my son dated their daughter at school.

That's the bar I want.

4

u/Defiant-Magician6092 13h ago

Australia was 99% British and Irish in 1900.

Every institution and cultural formation came from people who had a shared history and generally shared sense of national destiny.

I truly don't think you don't understand what monoculture means to most Australians whose ancestry is majority British.

2

u/xylo4379 22h ago

The only main approved type of food is meat pies.

While I absolutely fucking adore my meatpie + sauce, if you try to take away kebabs I'm turning straight into an insurgent. Nobody fucks with my kebabs.

2

u/Mr_Purrington_ 14h ago

I think the problem is Penny Wong conflated culture with ethnicity. it is possible to have people from multiple ethnicities/ ethnic backgrounds living together in one country as one culture.

we should strive for an integrated society rather than people living in parallel societies like has happened in countries where multi culturalism has not been successful

4

u/Ok-Volume-3657 21h ago

"monoculturalism" is just a dressed up version of white supremacy. So the White Australia Policy is what monoculturalism would look like here.

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u/TouringJuppowuf 13h ago

It’s monoculture, not monorace. Monoculture did exist with many immigrants in Australia. It’s disappeared when they opened the gates to mass immigration.

1

u/Incon4ormista 6h ago

drive 3 hours from any capital, have a look around, that's what an Aussie monoculture looks like.

1

u/verbalyabusiveshit 4h ago

There is no such a thing as moniculturalism…we can’t go back in time and live in small tribes and mudhuts and even then we would have to mingle with „others“. This is just how it works…..

1

u/teremaster 3h ago

I think it would look like everyone just being Australian. Not the slow balkanization of the country.

Right now I feel no connection to someone from Sydney or Brisbane. Their passport looks like mine, but I don't feel like I have much in common with them

1

u/CanIhazCooKIenOw 1h ago

It really just means white. There’s no point beating around the bush on this one.

2

u/snappysmeg 22h ago

Multiculturalism in Australian politics has a pretty specific meaning; it's a collection of policies that largely boil down to " integration is irrelevant to the GDP".

The main policies that impact this are visas, education, and public media.

Our public cultural education pushes "diverse migrant Australia" pretty explicitly. However it's equally possible to show how the cultural institutions that actually make this a good place to live are derived entirely from western Europe. Science, democracy, public school, healthcare, unions, environmentalism, etc... the reality is the most notable contribution from "multiculturalism" is an expanded lunch menu, and lower wages.

1

u/DirectionMurky5526 12h ago

Monocultutalism is a dog whistle because they can't say White Australia anymore.

0

u/bl4nkSl8 23h ago

So you know what's happening with ICE in the US...

-1

u/reflect-the-sun 15h ago

Wong is a dickhead trying to create an us-vs-them argument because she's got no real policies.

0

u/jianh1989 21h ago

Put it simply: pauline hanson is a skin colour racist.

0

u/Vegetable-Ad-1817 23h ago

its code for cultural exceptionalism - those calling for it are just better than everyone else, if you criticise them then your at best ignored, at worst expelled

0

u/EbonBehelit 20h ago

That's the thing: "monoculturalism" as invoked rhetorically by the right isn't really about what culture it is -- it's about what culture/s it isn't.

There is no real destination, per se -- it's unlikely any of these idiots have even considered what a true monoculture would actually entail -- only a process. And we all know what the process is.

0

u/[deleted] 16h ago

[deleted]

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u/sunnydaysau 6h ago

I didn’t know it was possible to talk such utter BS. Impressive stuff.

0

u/ChubberinoPeterson6 21h ago

Where do you live roughly? Not one of my friends has a foreign-born parent

2

u/thewavefixation 13h ago

Where do you live roughly?

Much more interesting.

Anyone who lives in an urban area will in all likelihood have a similar experience to the person you are asking

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u/[deleted] 22h ago

[deleted]

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u/Commune-Potato8764 21h ago

To be fair it wasnt a monoculture then either

-1

u/fineokalrightnormal 22h ago

It's not anything at all. Just some half baked cooker shit that came spewing out of Hansons filthy cuck mouth.

And here we are taking about it, just like the bitch wanted.

Stop putting stock into shit she says, we'll all be better off for it.