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In her speech to the National Press Club (″Hanson calls for a monoculture″, 18/6), Pauline Hanson again railed against multiculturalism, wanting (implausibly) to turn Australia back to the monoculture that last existed in the 1940s. The millions of migrants who have come to Australia since the Second World War have greatly enriched the country both economically and as an interesting place in which to live.
By cutting back migration sharply, a One Nation government would cause serious shortages of labour in critical areas, including health and aged care, horticulture, hospitality, construction, transport and IT.
While the Labor and Coalition parties have long been committed to closing the gap in living standards between First Nations people and other Australians, Hanson again ran the line that Aboriginal people are getting special treatment and said that the services designed to improve their lives would be stopped by One Nation. Such a retrograde step would be a disaster for the most disadvantaged cohort in Australia, and reveals an appalling lack of awareness of the historical and current suffering of Aboriginal people.
Hanson referred to the ″climate change hoax″, and said that One Nation would put an end to solar farms and transmission lines on rural land. At the same time, she would support the construction of a nuclear power station. These Trumpian positions are clearly inconsistent with the science of climate change and the economic superiority of renewables (supported by batteries) compared with fossil fuel and nuclear sources of energy.
Andrew Trembath, Blackburn
The myth of monoculturalism
I am old enough to have lived in a monocultural Australia and experienced the ″paradise″ that Pauline Hanson wants to bring back. This was the Australia of ″Abos″ and ″wogs″. We didn’t have to suffer watching ″wogball″ on SBS or eat the foods of the ″garlic munchers″ because we were British and had our superior meat and three veg. Of course, we treated our own properly didn’t we? Unless they were ″micks″, poor or didn’t know (and keep) their place, paying appropriate deference to their ″superiors″. Oh, the magnificence of monocultural purity.
Peter Loney, Drumcondra
Can the Liberal Party countenance an alliance?
Pauline Hanson’s address to the National Press Club reminded me of a Christmas lunch where an uncle sprouts racist tropes, blames the ills of the nation on migrants, reckons Aboriginal people get too many handouts and thinks schools should concentrate on the three Rs. He then says women should stay home where they belong and look after the kids ″like they did in my day″. Hanson’s fossil fuel backers got a call out when she, against all evidence to the contrary, labelled climate change a hoax, called for more coal-fired power stations and the building of a nuclear reactor. The question for the Liberal Party in Victoria and nationally is, will you form an alliance with Hanson’s party by forging preference deals with them?
Craig Horne, Fitzroy North
Guinness, baguettes, pizzas, all gone
Pauline Hanson’s address spelt out her policy on migration. No more multiculturalism. Instead we must be a monocultural society. Imagine that. No more Guinness or Greek coffee, no more French baguettes or Dutch pancakes, no Italian pizza or pasta, no Vietnamese noodles or Chinese dumplings, no bagels or Turkish bread. She wants everyone to speak English. Does she also want everyone to dress the same? So no prayer scarves, no yarmulkes or turbans and clearly no burqas. Imagine this monocultural Australia without all the enrichment of other cultures. Australia today is very different to Australia in 1945 or 200 years ago or 10,000 years ago. We have evolved and we should celebrate all those milestones with pride and acceptance. Long live multiculturalism.
Marisa Di Giacomo, Beaumaris
THE FORUM
Who can you turn to?
Why does Jacinta Allan insist on pushing unnecessary but contentious WFH legislation when there is so much vital work that needs doing in other areas? The gun lobby gets what it wants, rogue unions run rampant, roads are potholed statewide. But when the alternatives come to the fore for the November election – a backward-looking club with no policies or a monoculturist and her followers with no policies – where can you turn?
Independents and Greens offer the only hope.
John Laurie, Riddells Creek
Growing families
Thank you Helen Perrottet for the perspective of someone with a large family (“I am a mum of eight. This is why I chose to have a big family”, 15/6). The most important message I believe is that the motivation to have children can and should transcend financial considerations.
My wife and I have seven children, all now adults, still in Melbourne and all but one have children of their own. Although there were financial and time pressures and overseas holiday dreams remained just that for a long time, we have absolutely no regrets. Yes we were fortunate that our children turned out to be capable, independent and resilient, but we cannot imagine life without them and the increasing number of grandchildren.
Projections of many organisations, including the UN, is that peak world population will be reached within a few decades and if low birth rates continue, a decline will start. It’s now time for a debate about how to encourage and support larger families.
William Larkin, Wattle Glen
Market forces
Your correspondent (Letters, 17/6) seems to blaming Labor’s new housing policies for the fall in house prices. The legislation hasn’t passed yet. Property prices are falling for one reason only, potential house buyers can’t afford the ridiculous prices and mortgages. It is interesting that people are so easily led to blame our leaders when the market does the talking. All home buyers take a risk and I am afraid governments shouldn’t be there to offset losses.
John Rome, Mt Lawley, WA
Thwarting the hoons
If the residents of Port Melbourne want to discourage the night-time hoons in cars and on motorbikes perhaps they could dig up parts of the street and create some potholes – that would slow them down. Perhaps a few concrete barriers here and there. The other big advantage for the residents would be that they will feel like they are driving on country roads where potholes, barriers and speed restriction signs abound.
Bob Speed, Trafalgar
Voting despair
The Age editorial (18/6) clearly lays out Victoria’s problems and challenges. However, asking the questions is the easy part. Where are the answers? Surely not in the One Nation’s bag of grievances easily echoed by the Liberal Party.
Showbags of goodies offered by the government for votes do nothing to address the broader picture. Threatening harsher penalties for so-called criminal kingpin’s recruiting minors to perform their work does nothing for the already stretched law enforcement and legal systems.
Labor must face up to the entrenched corruption blighting relationships with the unions. Making statements of tougher action without bolstering IBAC resources is seen as kicking the can down the road. Crying out for action and voting for a party that represents a picture of an Australia that is racist, anti-immigration, claims that workers are lazy and is totally inexperienced at government is surely not the answer.
Lodge a protest vote by all means, however you may as well write across your ballot none of the above.
Peter Roche, Carlton
Kick this idea around
Watching the recent rugby league State-of-Origin game, you had to be impressed with the accuracy of the place kickers who scored with every kick, mostly from the sideline. Why is it not used in AFL?
Kevin Vidler, Mount Waverley
Now is time to say no
Pauline Hanson has done Australians a favour. Climate change denying, abortion rights undermining, opposing workers’ rights and opposing wage increases except for the richest, supporting the bizarre notion of a monoculture, banning certain media outlets – the list goes on.
There can be no excuses for the Liberal and National parties and their members contemplating an alliance or an “arrangement” with One Nation. They can’t claim they didn’t know.
Now is the time for Angus Taylor and Matt Canavan to confirm that their parties are not interested in a coalition with One Nation.
Andrew Hewett, Brunswick
Migration, then and now
My 40-year-old father migrated to Australia in 1949. He was a stone mason by trade and after three years was able to save enough money to bring out the rest of his family. Because he worked for an Italian company and with mainly Italian workers, his English was very limited and would have barely spoke 20 words of English by the time he died in 1993. Many of the buildings he adorned with marble and granite still stand in Adelaide. Given today’s One Nation discussions on migration he would never have made it to Australia.
Corrado Tavella, Rosslyn Park, SA
Pot, kettle, black
Pauline Hanson complaining about the Get Up stunt is a bit rich, considering her stunts in parliament wearing a burka. This is a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.
Randall Bradshaw, Fitzroy
Exclusion philosophy
In an age where many embrace diversity, Pauline Hanson continues to champion a more exclusive interpretation of national identity, advocating social homogeneity, heritage preservation, and a measured scepticism of newcomers.
Her dedication to drawing distinctions between ″us″ and ″them″ remains as steadfast as ever.
Supporters may regard such sentiments as patriotic vigilance; critics may see them as an exercise in cultural gatekeeping, and identity protectionism. Whatever terminology one prefers, her remarks serve as a reminder that some political philosophies remain firmly anchored in the comforts of exclusion rather than the challenges of inclusion.
As Australians, we must decide whether our future is best built on openness and shared opportunity on ever more refined versions of tribal preference and selective belonging.
Darren Grindrod, Glenroy
Power breakdown
Please explain: Pauline Hanson said the party would block new wind, solar developments and powerlines on agricultural land, support continued use of coal and gas, build a nuclear reactor and two new coal power stations on the east coast. Without new power lines how are the new power stations going to be integrated into the power grid?
Peter FitzGibbon, Inverloch
Shutting the door
Is Pauline Hanson suggesting that Chinese restaurants, Japanese restaurants or the likes are to be shut for good? Are festivals of Chinese new year, Ramadan, Indian colour day all to be cleansed out of the society?
Jie Wu, Bentleigh
Refugee intolerance
I read with interest the article “Under Hanson, Socceroo stars couldn’t call Australia home” (17/6). Unfortunately, the intolerance against people who appear different has been evident since Europeans first arrived.
However, with regards to refugees, both the Liberal Party and the Labor Party have gone out of their way to foment tension, first with the Liberals’ Stop the Boats campaign, and later Labor’s offshore detention policy.
Is it any wonder that there has been a growing support of far-right parties such as One Nation when the seeds were sown years ago?
Indeed the leaders of the major parties should hang their heads in shame for their role in emboldening them.
Robert Preston, McKinnon
Marles, leave koalas be
In international relations the Minister for Defence, Richard Marles, is a considered voice of reason and reassurance.
As the Minister for Defence, however, he also has ultimate control over what happens at the Defence Department sites including the naval base HMAS Cerberus at Crib Point, where, to the great dismay of the local population the government is planning to sell off 1100 hectares of untouched bush. This is called habitat loss and this is why even koalas are now threatened with imminent extinction.
Marles should drop this plan and sell other sites – inside the capital cities – if cash is needed to prop up the Defence Department.
Michael O’Ryan, Mt Eliza
F in biology for Trump
Donald Trump wanted the reflecting pool in Washington to be blue like the American flag. Instead, it’s gone green with algae. We already know he doesn’t understand history, geography, diplomacy, or economics, to which we can now add biology.
Tim Durbridge, Brunswick
Mary marvel
Mary, the female Tasmanian Devil, wins the first season of Mammalian Alone by surviving two weeks in the Gold Coast metropolis without outside provisions or assistance.
David Cayzer, Clifton Hill
AND ANOTHER THING
Politics
After watching Pauline Hanson’s National Press Club address, heaven help Australia if One Nation gets to power.
John Nash, Altona
Must we only eat fish and chips? No more ramen?
Pete Tighe, Ascot Vale
Has Pauline Hanson adopted the middle name Donald because that is who she sounds like?
Bruce Cormack, Kilsyth
If you think Pauline Hanson has the answers, have I got a bridge to sell you.
Ross Hosking, Blackwood, SA
Pauline Hanson claimed that the last census showed that a quarter of the population could not speak English? The actual figure was less than 4 per cent.
William Wallace, Ascot Park, SA
The moment the British arrived at Sydney Cove in 1788, Australia ceased to be monocultural.
Peter Williams, Alphington
Fish and chips. Steak cooked on a sandwich press. Vegemite sandwich. Meat pie. Back to the 1950s? No thank you.
Gretel Lamont, Aireys Inlet
What does Pauline Hanson think about our multicultural Socceroos?
David Moore, Kew
Could some enlightened person explain the meaning of the word monoculture?
Mary Fenelon, Doncaster East
Pauline Hanson says that Australia cannot be a multicultural country. She should visit the Dandenong Market, Springvale and Box Hill and see multiculturalism in practice.
Reg Murray, Glen Iris
Just the thought of Pauline Hanson addressing the United Nations in New York is migraine inducing.
David Francis, Ocean Grove
Finally
Shane Wright (Comment, 18/6) reminds us of the good that great wealth can do: build houses, libraries, give workers a company stake.
Jenny Kashyap, Bentleigh
