Ideas@TheCentre
Disintegration of Sydney: A legitimate topic for 'M&M' debate
Almost everything George Brandis had to say this week about Australian tolerance, based on his experience growing up in the 1960s in the suburb of Petersham in Sydney’s inner west, is true.
Since the end of the World War II, Australia has had a proud history of successfully integrating ‘New Australians.’ This track record can be attributed in part to the egalitarianism of the overwhelming majority of ‘Old Australians,’ who made newcomers of all colours and creeds welcome.
But the Senator for Queensland went too far in trying to shut down the ‘M&M’ (Multiculturalism and Muslims) debate in his article in The Sydney Morning Herald.
‘I can still remember the playground taunting of Italian kids, from which I formed my lifelong detestation of bullies who pick on a vulnerable minority. Whether they realise it or not, the same sentiment that drives those who bullied those kids then, animates those who beat up on Muslims now.’
This is a variation on a common grievance aired by many members of the multicultural industry: ‘Australia is a racist country because Anglo kids teased me about what was in my sandwiches at lunchtime.’
Judging how a civilisation treats its minorities based on what eight-year-olds call each other is ludicrous. To equate this with a legitimate debate about the success or otherwise of Muslim integration – a belated debate finally being had in Britain, France, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, and Scandinavia – is ludicrous as well.
From Petersham, it is only a 15-minute drive to Lakemba. It is 30 years since refugees fleeing the civil war in Lebanon received asylum in this country, but Lakemba and its surrounds remain ghetto-ified. The usual pattern of dispersal by first-generation children of immigrants has not occurred to the same extent, and the area is plagued with poor educational achievement, high unemployment, and crime.
Community concerns in Greater Western Sydney about Multiculturalism and Muslims are based on these jarring realities – the dis-integration of some parts of Sydney from the mainstream and the conspicuous failure to repeat the successful patterns of integration of other ethnic groups. To blame racial or religious prejudice, whether formed in the playground or otherwise, is avoiding the real issue.
In other words, it is because most Australians believe in the immigration and integration of all comers that what is going on in Southwest Sydney is of concern. Perceptive politicians have picked up on this. Effective politicians will honestly address the issues and propose solutions. Ineffective ones will shut their eyes and lecture an unimpressed electorate about respecting ‘diversity.’
Dr Jeremy Sammut is a Research Fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies.
