Australia did not become itself by accident.
We are one of the most successful multicultural societies in the world. Walk through any suburb in Melbourne or Sydney and you will hear languages from every continent. You will eat food that, a generation ago, many Australians could not even pronounce. Our universities, hospitals, construction sites and small businesses are powered by people who were not born here but chose to build their lives here.
Immigrants have not diluted Australia. They have defined it.
There was a time when this was broadly understood. Even after the formal end of the White Australia policy, we moved – sometimes slowly, sometimes imperfectly – towards a confidence that diversity was not a threat but an asset.
But something has shifted.
Today, immigrants are increasingly spoken about not as contributors, but as problems to be managed. The language has hardened. Integration is no longer assumed to be possible; it is treated as doubtful. Cultural difference is framed less as enrichment and more as risk.
Recently, the Liberal Party floated the idea of banning migrants from certain countries altogether. It is a dramatic move – not simply a policy tweak, but a signal. It tells the public that some nationalities are inherently suspect. That some people, before they even arrive, are presumed incompatible.
We have been here before.
In the 19th century, Chinese miners were blamed for economic anxiety. Southern Europeans were once derided as unassimilable. Vietnamese refugees were warned would never “fit in.” Each generation seems to rediscover the same fear – and each generation is eventually proven wrong.
What troubles me is not that immigration policy is being debated. A mature nation can and should debate numbers, infrastructure, housing pressures and labour markets. These are legitimate policy questions.
What troubles me is the tone.
When politicians shift from discussing policy settings to questioning the character of entire peoples, something deeper changes. The debate stops being about planning and starts being about belonging. It draws a line between “real Australians” and those who must perpetually prove themselves.
And in doing so, it forgets a simple truth: most of us are descendants of people who were once the new arrivals.
Australia’s strength has never been purity. It has been pragmatism. It has been the quiet confidence that if people work, raise families, contribute and commit to this place, they become part of the national story.
We should be careful before we abandon that confidence.
Because once a country begins defining itself by who it excludes, it risks shrinking – not just demographically, but morally.
Immigration policy will always evolve. But our values should not be so easily swayed by electoral cycles or focus groups.
The question is not whether we can manage migration. We can.
The question is whether we still remember who we are.
Also by Michael Taylor:
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Every major social problem has at its heart the financial system that dominates our economy.
When the Libs and Labs embraced hyper-liberalism, they began the process of developing a new social class — the precariat.
“In sociology and economics, the precariat is a social class formed by people suffering from precarity, which means existing without predictability or security, affecting material or psychological welfare. The term is a portmanteau merging precarious with proletariat”.
“The hallmark of the precariat class is the condition of lack of job security, including intermittent employment or underemployment and the resultant precarious existence.”
“The precariat class has also been emerging in societies such as Japan, where it numbers over two million. Both in the West and in Japan, a similar group of people are called NEETs.”
“NEET, an acronym for Not in Education, Employment, or Training, is a person who is unemployed and not receiving an education or vocational training.”
The NEETS and those in the precariat live in constant fear, and are easy prey for fascist propaganda about “job stealers”.
Ditch the financial system and solve the problem.
And stop a lot of wars at the same time.
My existence, from arrival until a few years ago, was the epitome of that of the precariat; dogged by the consequences of early childhood abuse… elements like poor self-esteem, constant insecurity, inability to trust or form strong & enduring relationships, ADHD issues – poor concentration, incapacity to focus long-term, incapacity to formulate aims and long-term goals and so on… the list goes on. As a case study of the outcomes of ECA, I’m the perfect template. Drug & alcohol problems. Seventy-nine roofs lived under, fifty-two discrete pieces of employment. Precariat central. A science degree as a mature-aged student did SFA for my employment circumstances… whilst the underlying issues remained unaddressed nothing substantial could change. I fully expected, twenty-five years ago, to live out my senior years in a boarding house, or a humpy underneath a gum tree or similar. My story is consonant with that of thousands. Sydney’s Blue Knot Foundation, a resource that provides professional assistance to ASCA’s, adult survivors of childhood abuse, estimate that close to 70% of Australian adults have suffered from childhood abuse that has left lasting consequences; trauma, insecurity, predilection towards violence & substance abuse and more. It’s an appalling statistic. My life was saved, without exaggeration, by that organisation and their connecting me to an extraordinarily competent psychotherapist, not that that in itself diminished the precariat. It took an inheritance to finally get me over the existential hump of imminent poverty and homelessness.
I’m lucky. For many, their worse fears are realised, are reality. For a few, fate intervenes and lifts them from the troughs of despair and hopelessness.
Nonetheless, Steve’s comments describe the daily lived experiences of millions, while goverments look the other way and do little or nothing.
Interesting on the election diagnosis of Libs or LNP attitudes, like ON &/or SusPopAus towards post white Australia immigrants, highlighted by Victoria’s Amelia Hamer, descendent of former Premier Rupert ‘Dick’ Hamer.
Hamer dragged the 1970s Libs out of the 1950s, to attract younger gens, plus immigrants with multilingual marketing etc., then continued under ALP’s Cain and also Kennett, then John Howard and Pauline Hanson emerged…..along with US Murdoch, Koch and Tanton Networks’ presence.
As younger Hamer suggested, Libs need to have policies addressing reality of today, not for their nostalgia based reality of the past, being influenced by regional QLD….. ignorant that many immigrants are dual and vote.
Also a symptom of lazily following US GOP & FoxNews electoral tactics based on US ‘Christian’ culture that do not fit locally eg. ignores our compulsory voting vs US voluntary.
Kanga, thanks for adding the personal details — you injected life into my comment.
And mate, I thought my 30 or more jobs was a pretty good effort, but you’ve made me look ordinary!
Luckily for me, my employment moves were all voluntary, but the economy today is totally different, and such an employment path would be a lot more difficult today.
But you hit the nail on the head.
The awful problems faced by the precariat today can be solved simply with a re-allocation of resources.
Which is a point Denis Hay has been making with his discussions of modern Monetary Theory.
Thanks again.
Gosh what wonderful comments.
This site is fortunate to have you guys.
@ Michael Taylor and we as readers & contributors are very lucky that you & Carol established AIMN.
@ Steve, Canguro: The Canadians dealt with the ”Precariat” problem by trialling the ”Universal Basic Income (UBI)” for about five (5) years under a progressive government before the conservative Harper mob shut it down for too long, leaving the research results of the UBI Project in boxes until the next progressive government.
In short, ”capitalism” is the exploitation of labour by usually unscrupulous capitalists more interested in profit than communities. Unemployment is a ”sin” caused by the workers and unemployment benefits are only grudgingly paid at almost survival levels.
The Canadian UBI system pays a ”living wage” to unemployed persons who in return provide the research data required to evaluate the programme. There is no ”work obligations”, just stay out of trouble and get on with being productive (as you define it). The programme was funded from the Health Department budget. The reference below details the programme and is an excellent read.
Briefly, the impact of UBI on participants was a reduction in stress because the government payments were always there, thus allowing proper budgeting of family living. Indeed, the Health Department discovered that the UBI research programme SAVED Health Department expenses by REDUCING the number of medical appointments by participants, such that the UBI research actually paid for itself in savings!!
Participants were not required to complete any work related appointment schedule at enormous personal expense, only the research paperwork was required, and participants could engage in whatever ”hobbies” they chose even when they created an income stream.
This is a model that reflects the first former Australian ”living wage” from the first International Harvester (1907) case:
Harvester Judgement (1907): A seminal Australian case where Justice Higgins ruled on the Sunshine Harvester Factory, setting a “fair and reasonable” wage for workers, which influenced Australian labor law for 70 years.
There were a further three (3) International Harvester (IH) cases defining working conditions for Australia workers.
The Australian company, Sunshine Harvester at Sunshine Victoria, designed and built the first (wheat) combine harvester, only to have IH come to Australia, purchase an example, then return to America to steal the design and subsequently manufacture for the US market without any payment to Sunshine.
Rutger Bregman (2017) ”Utopia for Realists; and how we get there”, Bloomsbury, London ISBN: 978-1-4088-9027-1.
Yes, thanks Michael, a straightforward article of truth.
And the comments spot-on.
Canguro, such an honest and beautiful revelation of your hurdles and vulnerabilities apparently overcome. To me, confirming an irony that such forthrightness and awareness is usually only expressed by those who have the courage to investigate their vulnerabilities. Whilst so many others may armour their souls resulting in a bias and a blame and battle with externalities.
We all have hurdles and vulnerabilities, they’re a matter of perspective. Even if only through the weirdness of epigenetics, the ever-increasing onslaught of hormonal disturbance, and unreconciled dreams. Yet there appears to be a lack of societal deliberacy in attending to these matters, with preference still given to abdication via mythology and the arc of gods.
NEC, I like the story of UBI, especially the follow-on about Sunshine Harvesters. My relos, way back had a foundry on Dynon Road, and supplied a good deal of material to Sunshine Harvesters. Whatever happened to the proceeds of that foundry venture is unknown and of little consequence. That family branch were also early settlers and merchants in and around Lakes Entrance, Orbost, Sale, Bairnsdale and Foster; the richness is in the stories.
Steve, I’m right with you. And am keen on your observation of hyper-liberalism and use of precariat and its straightforward definition.
The performance of my life, and selection of mirrors has in retrospect been weird, eclectic lacking deliberacy, sometimes scary and variously rewarding as I wrangle the rugged rocks gazing on the beauty of both rich tapestries and threadbare rugs.
Happening upon the AIMN has been such a fortune.
“Happening upon the AIMN has been such a fortune.”
For all of us, Clakka. This site appreciates your contributions.
“@Michael Taylor and we as readers & contributors are very lucky that you & Carol established AIMN.”
Wow, NEC. Carol and I are humbled. Thank you.
To me, the key word is “tone”. It’s more to with inflexion than content.
Its like Carney today and the old “both sides” claptrap obscuring the real story.
Very neutral except that Iran is not attacking Israel, inflicting civilian casualties-its the other way round.
And Israel and the US attack Iran within its borders. It is NOT about two even “teams” in a neutral footy contest.
More, schoolyard thuggery..
The real structure is to do with plunder and coercion for some at the expense of others: Weve had two years of inflected bs with Gaza, where the odd agonised spasm of a dying 4 yo is somehow conflated to striking back spitefully, via the death rattle, at sensitive Israelis for daring to be alive when Israel and America decided they wanted land, homes and resources for themselves.
This, regardless of the feelings and needs of millions of actual owners.
AIM is my favourite read. Fantastis stuff and comments. I only just heard that Aussies were on the sub that sank the Iranian ship. What is Albo’s motive? He could end up unemployed like Starmer. But his ass kissing will get him a good job.
Greater Israel (bring back the Kingdom of Israel), oil and gas, the destruction of 3 trade routes being establish between Russis, India and Iran which would be shorter/cheap/safer and would bypass Suez, Trumps childish ego and desperation to retain home support, etc. Many things at play. But billianaires increase their wealth and influence over pollies, and civilians pay the price. This is bad capitailism at its best.
Thank you, Warren. That’s a huge compliment.