Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has reconfirmed his support for a multicultural Australia, backing similar recent comments made by ‘80s movie star Paul Hogan.
Questions about multiculturalism were raised following One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson’s calls for an Australian monoculture, as well as comments by Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie, who said multiculturalism had become a “loaded” political term.
The topic has come to dominate Australian politics this month, after Hanson talked about the need for a single, overarching cultural identity during her National Press Club address.
In an interview with the Australian Financial Review, Hogan, 86, accused Hanson of living in the past and recalled how he had many friends of different backgrounds in his time in Sydney.
Hogan, who starred in the Crocodile Dundee movie franchise, now lives in the United States.
“How can [Australia] be a monoculture? We’re all migrants, except the Aboriginals, who as far as we know have been [in Australia] for 60,000 years,” he said.
Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on the evening of June 29, Albanese said Hogan “nailed it” with his comments.
“We’ve never been a monocultural society,” he said.
“If you go back to First Nations people, there were 400 First Nations in Australia. The First Fleet had people of Catholic, Protestant, Jewish backgrounds. You had people in chains and people in charge of people in chains as well.”
Albanese also noted that Australia was a multicultural country by its very nature.
“That means we have respect for each other,” he said.
“That means we’re loyal to Australia. And we also, though, respect that we’re made up of, with the exception of First Nations people, we’re all either migrants or descendants of migrants, in some way either directly or going back generations as well.
“And one of the great things about our nation is that I think we can be a microcosm for the world at our best, that shows that people of different ethnicities, different faiths, different backgrounds live overwhelmingly in harmony, and are enriched by our diversity as well as driven by our loyalty to the best country on earth, which is Australia.”
At the same time, the prime minister downplayed One Nation’s current popularity, which recent polls put at around 29 percent, attributing it to “the rise of populist right-wing parties” across Western countries.
“That’s something that reflects a range of changes, reflects a range of frustrations,” he said.
Meanwhile, Hanson said her calls for a monoculture were what millions of Australians were thinking, but many politicians were “too scared to say.”
“We must never be afraid to challenge long-held assumptions. I’ve been doing it for 30 years and I’m still here doing it.”
Hanson said polling shows 66 percent of Australians supported the concept of a monoculture.
“It’s an umbrella which covers all manner of difference,” she said.
“It’s not a dirty word. If we’re going to accept you, you must accept us too. That’s the bare minimum.”
