Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Multicultural Australia
applied for their visas’. 52 The debates in the Australian media escalated quickly
following the London terrorist attacks in 2005 and the fear of home-grown
terrorism. Zubrzycki, one of the original proponents of multicultural policy in
Australia, stated in The Weekend Australian that he never imagined that his
preference for a culturally diverse policy could welcome hard-line isolationist
groups antagonistic to Western values. 53
The combined issues of immigration, national values and terrorism have raised
questions as to how the modern nation state should fulfil its role as protector
of national identity and social cohesion. 54 The Australian government response
has been to support high levels of migration but at the same time demonstrate
to the public that they are tightly monitoring the management of migration and
diversity. 55 In terms of managing migration, Australia has selected migrants based
on their utility to the economy and on the skills shortage. In terms of managing
diversity, migrants with transnational links have been encouraged to integrate and
embrace Australian civic values. 56 Political leaders have led debates on the issues of
Australian national values and citizenship as a way of rethinking questions of social
cohesion and national identity.
At the turn of the century, with nearly 25 per cent of Australians born outside
the country, with transnational connections, the Coalition government specifically
focused on the notion of citizenship as a basis for a collective national identity. The
government proposed more difficult and protracted citizenship tests. In October
2006, Liberal MP Petro Georgiou criticised the government’s discussion paper
‘Australian citizenship: much more than just a ceremony’ in a speech delivered to
the Murray Hill Society at the University of Adelaide. Georgiou argued that difficult
and protracted citizenship tests were not necessary to promote social cohesion and
integration. In particular, Georgiou criticised the proposed English tests, arguing
that the take-up of citizenship is lowest among English speakers. For example,
migrants from the UK, New Zealand and the USA have traditionally had lower
take-up rates of citizenship than migrants from non-English-speaking countries.
With no real break in terrorist incidents in Western countries, and subsequent
concerns about racial and ethnic tensions, the civic approach to multiculturalism
and social cohesion was largely supported by successive Labor and Liberal
governments in the first two decades of the 21st century. Fears about terrorism on
home soil in Australia were realised in Sydney in 2014, when Australians witnessed
the Lindt cafe siege, which took place in front of a television studio. A lone gunman
–ManHaronMonis–withaMuslimbackgroundenteredthecafeandheldhostage
52 Megalogenis 2006, 1.
53 Megalogenis 2006.
54 Kofman 2005.
55 Ang and Stratton 2001.
56 Prime Minister John Howard on talkback radio received public criticism for his suggestions that
a small section of the Islamic population was unwilling to integrate. See also Kerbaj 2006; letters
to the editor in The Weekend Australian, 2–3 September 2006.
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