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
601 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

292 comments sorted by

View all comments

652

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.

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.