Comments on: There’s good arguments against multiculturalism — Morrison’s isn’t one

By: CML

CML — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 06:09:04 +0000

I think everyone has the right to bring their ideas and cultural practices into Australia when they come to settle here. However, parading a pre-school child around at a public demonstration holding a banner suggesting all “infidels” (read non-Moslems) should be beheaded (or something very similar), is totally unacceptable in a secular country.
Multiculturalism works well so long as everyone observes societal norms of decent behaviour.

By: klewso

klewso — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 04:03:34 +0000

“The Right’s Australia Policy”?

By: Steve777

Steve777 — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 23:39:13 +0000

Sorry for the long post, but Morrison’s comments need closer examination. What is he trying to say?

“The supremacy of Australian values”: How arrogant. The Libs are probably telling our trading partners that it’s just for the punters. Anyway, who decides what Australian values are? At best it looks like a rod with which to beat anyone you don’t like. At worst it’s something more sinister.

“The primacy of the English-language“: Who is threatening this? Does Morrison want to go back to the days when Aborigines (and for that matter Welsh and Irish children) were beaten for speaking in their own tongue? It’s a straw man, an attempt to curry favour with racists and bigots.

“Respect for existing institutions” What does that mean? Another rod for beating people you don’t like and another appeal to bigots. Who is showing disrespect? If anyone is breaking the law, we deal with it. If anyone is exercising their democratic rights to say, for example, we should be a republic or we should criminalise blasphemy, well, one may disagree but they have a right to say it.

“Adherence to the rule of law” - if anyone regardless of ethnicity, faith or whatever breaks the law then we deal with it according to due process. Who is not showing respect for the law? It’s OK to say you think the law should be changed. Another appeal to bigots.

Any political party that would be the likes of Scott Morrison in a senior position is an absolute disgrace and should not be allowed anywhere near the levers of power.

By: pritu

pritu — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 21:35:01 +0000

A pox on Morrison and his ilk!

By: Steve777

Steve777 — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 02:40:35 +0000

Of course “restore some balance by ensuring that we are more focused on what we have in common rather than how different we all are” and “the supremacy of Australian values, the primacy of the English-language, respect for existing institutions and adherence to the rule of law” means “white Anglo Australians will again be able to feel like they’re on top of the heap and will be free to look down on anyone else and tell r-cist jokes”. Not so much a dog-whistle as a vuvezela.

By: Craig Campbell

Craig Campbell — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 06:54:51 +0000

Thanks for the insightful analysis, Shakira. There’s a few things that I’d like to add though. Since Scott Morrison is a member of an Americanised Pentecostal church, does he actually believe in the ‘supremacy of Australian values’? (whatever they are?) And don’t Pentecostals give more primacy to speaking in tongues, than they do to speaking in English?
You’d think that a member of a minority religious grouping, would have more sympathy for other cultural minorities, but apparently not.
Also, one of the many reasons that I was glad to see the back of the Howard government, was their turgid obsession with labelling things Australian and un-Australian. It ended up having all the intellectual maturity of; Australian, sugar and spice and all things nice; un-Australian, snakes and snails and puppy dog tails.