Foreign Minister Penny Wong has declared that Australia has always been a multicultural country during a speech where she also claimed that diversity was good for national security.
Ms Wong, a Malaysian-born Chinese lesbian, delivered the annual Gyngell Lecture to the Lowy Institute in Sydney on Friday, and used the speech to launch a series of veiled attacks on One Nation’s calls to end multiculturalism and slash foreign aid.
The Labor senator began with a far-left indigenous land acknowledgment, and went on to say “the call for a monoculture is a call for Australia to curtail our choices and to cut off our connections” – a reference to a recent speech by Pauline Hanson – and said it meant being “lonely in a dangerous world”.
“Well before we could ever realise this melancholic fantasy of monoculture, there is a lot of damage that could be done. Because Australians would be turned against each other. Australia would be a more hostile place. Harder to be family, harder to be friend, colleague, or neighbour,” Ms Wong said.
“At a time where external and internal forces are seeking to divide us, turning Australians against each other makes us more vulnerable. Division makes us easier to exploit, it does not make us stronger. Turning Australians against each other is the opposite of patriotism.
“You see, our resilience starts with how we choose to live together. It starts with choosing to respect that while we have taken different roads, we all are worthy of a place here.
“It starts with respecting that multicultural Australia is the only Australia that has ever existed. It comes from choosing to see each other as equals with a shared stake in our nation’s future.”
Ms Wong went on to warn against isolationism, claiming “immigrants have strengthened and enriched our nation”, “we are more prosperous because of our diversity”.
The Foreign Minister regularly promotes multiculturalism and diversity, and earlier this year objected to a proposal by Liberal leader Angus Taylor to limit welfare benefits to Australian citizens by filming a video in Melbourne’s Chinatown where she claimed the city was was built by indigenous people and immigrants.
She also sparked controversy in the lead-up to last year’s federal election by holding a “Chinese town hall” event in Melbourne where White Australians were refused entry.
Header image: Left, Penny Wong during her speech. Right, Ms Wong with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (Foreign Ministry).
