Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Multicultural Australia
on the issues of access to public services and equity in the allocation of public
resources. The OMA identified three new directions for multicultural policy:
• cultural maintenance and respect for cultural difference
• promotion of social justice
• recognition of the economic significance of an ethnically and culturally diverse
community. 38
The principles of multiculturalism were broadly accepted by the Hawke and
Keating Labor governments throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. 39 However, with
the rise in Asian immigration, there were rumblings that the government was
moving too far ahead of public opinion. For example, Geoffrey Blainey argued
that the immigration policy in the early 1980s was insensitive to the views of
the majority of Australians. In All for Australia, Blainey criticised Australia’s
immigration policy and the slogan ‘Australia is part of Asia’. He argued that
Australia was importing unemployment but not announcing what it was doing. 40
Furthermore, he criticised the nature of multiculturalism as an identity for
Australia:
Multiculturalism is an appropriate policy for those residents who hold two sets of
national loyalties and two passports. For the millions of Australians who have one
loyalty this policy is a national insult. 41
Blainey’s criticisms were later echoed in the mid-1990s. For example, in 1996,
leader of the One Nation Party (ONP), Pauline Hanson, expressed the following
concerns about Asian immigration and multiculturalism in her maiden speech in
federal parliament:
Immigration and multiculturalism are issues that this government is trying to
address, but for far too long ordinary Australians have been kept out of any debate
by the major parties. I and most Australians want our immigration policy radically
reviewed and that of multiculturalism abolished. I believe we are in danger of
being swamped by Asians. 42
The recognition of ethnic difference in multiculturalism was interpreted by the
ONP as a form of disrespect to Anglo-Australian identity. 43 In fact, it is possible
that ONP populism caused the most damage to multiculturalism. In 1996, the
newly elected Howard Liberal–National (Coalition) government made cuts in the
38 Allbrook, Cattalini and Associates 1989, 20.
39 Jones 2003, 116.
40 Blainey 1984.
41 Blainey 1988, 22.
42 Hanson 2016.
43 Leach 2000, 45.
419