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I was contemplating Pauline Hanson’s need for a monoculture, while I viewed with wonder the “cultural quilt” displayed at Cabrini Hospital, comprising dozens of colourful separate patchwork symbols and the written commentary commemorating the myriad nationalities that comprised the Cabrini “family.” Then I thought to myself, “If we follow her path, we’ll be harking back to the days of “meat, two veg and dollops of tomato sauce”.
Peter Russo, Brunswick West
Accepting change takes time
Your correspondent (Letters, 18/6), has a much better sense of reality than Pauline Hanson does. As a son of a 1949 refugee family, I recall the then parochial and anti so-called ″New Australian″ attitudes of many Australians. Hearing comments like ″why don’t you speak Australian or go back to your own country″, was not unusual. Thank goodness Australia has matured, no doubt in part because of our acceptance of multiculturalism. My parents were grateful for the opportunity to establish a new family life in a new country and worked hard to be accepted in their new homeland, but did not reject their own cultural background. I would like to think they added to Australian culture and values in many ways.
We can all learn from the range of cultures we are exposed to without sacrificing the core values which bring cohesion to societies. Cultures change slowly, but do so over time. A purely Australian culture (as distinct from characteristics), is hard to define and in any case is not static, but perhaps universal values which support the creation and maintenance of a cohesive and caring community is a better place to focus our attention.
For most of us, accepting change takes time, but to all those One Nation supporters, do you really want to take us back to the ’40s and ’50s?
Charles Griss, Balwyn
Australia’s values are fracturing
It is laughable listening to all the faux outrage at Pauline Hanson’s reference to maintaining an Australian ″monoculture″. I would urge all voters to listen to her whole address instead of taking notice of “edited” bits of the speech written without context. Surely people of common sense would understand that her reference to monoculture meant what so many people are now wanting with a louder and louder voice. Australia needs to be a country of unity and shared common Western values – values that have underpinned this country’s history and which have been so attractive to the many people who have migrated here for those very reasons. Australia is undergoing is a fracturing of those values and we are seeing the results of this fracturing in that we have a royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion. If our shared values are not fracturing there would be no need for a such a commission.
Jan White, Donvale
THE FORUM
Hanson, pay us a visit
Each March, in our small Victorian town, we celebrate ″Harmony Day″, as do other towns and cities around the country.
Our schools celebrate in their classrooms, and large crowds come to our main street to see our many local cultures celebrated for what they are – a rich tapestry of traditional songs, languages, dances, stories, clothing and cooking that have evolved from their many homelands.
Afghan, Indian, Sri Lankan, Philippine, Thai, Japanese, Irish, Korean, Chinese, Sudanese Australians and other first and second-generation immigrants and refugees are cheered for what they are – the people of our planet who have landed for various reasons on a foreign shore, as indeed did all our forebears.
Indigenous dancers honour their ancient rituals in their own land, and invite us to join in.
Our community would welcome the leaders of the party that advocates a ″monocultural″ society to come along next Harmony Day. Let’s sit down together and listen, and talk.
William Twycross, Mansfield
A beautiful picture
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, for your front page picture of those four beautiful young Australian Socceroos stars (19/6). Surely these boys, and their wonderful migrant colleagues in this country, will overcome the One Nation ugliness once and for all.
Nick Bailey, Northcote
Forced removal
Monoculture? We’ve tried that before. One of the consequences of it was it made it seem right and proper to remove children from their parents. And, of course, there was the donations of blankets. That was OK at the time, too.
Ian Brain, Ballarat
Policy negatives
Columnist Jenna Price is right to call out Pauline Hanson for her attitude to the perceived inequities of the Family Court’s allocation of access and responsibility (“Family Court would be a disaster if Hanson had her way”, 18/6). Suicide is a tragedy, not a political football: Hanson is way out of court in claiming without evidence that aggrieved parties are driven to suicide. On a much larger scale and with far-reaching implications, it apparently has not occurred to Hanson that thousands of legal immigrants’ lives would be destroyed and communities disrupted if her “monocultural” framework ever became law. That’s the devastating effect that her policies would create. As a country, we surely do not want or need to retreat into such hideously negative stereotypes.
Jenifer Nicholls, Windsor
History lesson
Barnaby Joyce says in relation to immigration (″One Nation leader’s dystopian speech″, 19/6) that trying to import your future and import your progress doesn’t work. What does he think happened post-World War II in Australia?
Patrick Hennessy, St Kilda
Cuisine as culture
Pauline Hanson wants a monoculture. The Australia of her dreams might be ″multiracial″ but can no longer be ″multicultural″. What is ″monocultural″ in our context anyway? One of the most obvious expressions of cultural difference is via food. Are we no longer to enjoy Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Greek, Lebanese, Italian, French, Spanish, Chilean, Somali, Indian, Mexican and all the other brilliant restaurants, markets and produce (apologies to those cuisines I’ve missed)?
What is ″Australian″ cuisine to be? Pies, fish and chips, meat and three veg originated in the UK but we still have the King so they probably qualify. Hamburgers, McDonald’s, KFC, etc are all ″American″ so goodbye to most franchised fast food. Maybe ″American″ food will qualify too since we are a client state of the US these days after all.
Pauline Hanson has come full circle on Australia’s Indigenous cultural roots and has entered a ″Dreamtime″ of her own construction.
Anne Austin, Flinders
Which culture club?
I’m wondering which ″monoculture″ Pauline Hanson is hoping will sweep Australia. That of an opera buff, or a Triple J fan? A croquet player or a surfer? A grey nomad or a Bali nightclubber? Is she planning to join my ″culture″, or expecting me to join hers – whatever that is?
Bronwen Bryant, Kensington
Dinosaurs already
There is considerable debate about the potential economic value of data centres and their environmental impacts, which is all relevant. However, the current data centres are being designed to support existing computer technologies. With the continued development of AI, future computing technologies (quantum computing) will advance and rapidly replace existing computer technologies for data centres. In an urban design sense, what then will these current data centres become?
The future use of data centres being built now needs to be a consideration in their design and approval now. We don’t need any more future dinosaur buildings.
Peter Breen, Malvern East
Not awash with cash
New flood maps tell councils “where the work needs to be done”, (“20,000 homes newly flagged as being at risk of flooding”, 19/6). Unfortunately, they don’t show where the cash-strapped councils might find the necessary money. Could the problem possibly be solved by taxing the climate-warming, flood-driving fossil fuel exports?
Lesley Walker, Northcote
The AI resistance
I am being bombarded by family and colleagues to evolve towards and embrace AI.
I resist because AI is built upon a biased echo-chamber of human archives and is quickly learning to think like a clever but biased selection of humans.
Since big tech has steadfastly and earnestly resisted applying values-based filters on internet content the steady evolution of that content is inexorably downwards in respect of acceptable human values.
AI has no capacity to independently investigate the real world outside of text. It can never see outside that box so cannot identify human errors in interpreting the real world. It cannot be Newton, Einstein, or Beethoven. It can’t identify a new species. It cannot listen to the voiceless.
Robbert Veerman, Buxton
Home advantage
Your correspondent (Letters, 18/6) presents, like many others, arguments against working from home that have nothing to do with the requirements of the jobs that can be done from home.
Why should I, and many others, travel an hour or more each way to sit at a desk in an office on Zoom calls just because some else’s employment does not lend itself to working from home or because a coffee shop wants more customers.
Surely the ability of whether a person can work from home should come down to the requirements of the specific job being undertaken and not whether people in different jobs don’t have those requirements or whether a business needs more customers.
Terry Corbett, Prahran
A perplexing match-up
I find rugby league State of Origin perplexing. Two states playing each other seems to be the equivalent of an Ashes Test or World Cup final. Many opposing players play for the same club.
Michael Brinkman, Ventnor
Kick had its place
Your correspondent (Letters, 19/6) may not be aware that the place kick was used in VFL games up until the 1950s. As J. McHale, A. E. Chadwick and E. C. H.Taylor pointed out in their comprehensive The Australian Game of Football: “This kick appears to be a lost art with many players nowadays, and more’s the pity. It is certainly the most accurate kick of all, and especially so when there is a head or cross wind blowing.“
A regular, skilful user of the place kick was St Kilda captain Dave McNamara who has the record at 85 metres. It takes a while to set up but could be an interesting spectacle every now and then.
Bernard Daly, Flinders
A maths mire
I, too, am outraged at that T-shirt. (“Wrong message: Myer shirt sparks ire”, 18/6.) Can someone please add an ″s″.
Tim Durbridge, Brunswick
AND ANOTHER THING
Politics
If Pauline Hanson wants to become the prime minister, I’d hate to think what the parliamentary dress code will be.
Doug Springall, Yarragon
Hanson’s policies could appeal to conservative voters, but why would workers support them?
Malcolm McDonald, Burwood
Monoculture: everything Pauline Hanson tells us it is.
Ivan Glynn, Vermont
To your correspondent (Letters, 19/6) monoculture means unifying and shared culture, becoming together as One Nation under one flag, accepting our way of life.
Sandy Turner, Rowville
Even a seasoned campaigner and politician like Barnaby Joyce couldn’t seem to explain away Hanson’s meanings in her speech (″One Nation leader’s ‘dystopian’ speech″, 19/6).
Marie Nash, Balwyn
As a ″ten-pound Pom″, tonight I’m having fish and chips for dinner, and for ″pudding″ I may have a lamington and then an Anzac biscuit with a cuppa. Am I assimilated enough?
Myra Fisher, Brighton East
With ″one″ related to ″mono″ and ″nation″ related to ″culture″ it’s unsurprising that One Nation proposes monoculture as its overarching policy stance. It does simplify the choice of who to put last on a ballot paper.
Jim Spithill, Glen Waverley
I guess if Pauline Hanson wants Australia to be monocultural she will have to leave it to the original inhabitants.
Ron Slamowicz, Caulfield South
Pauline Hanson’s speech on what her ″Austraya″ should look like should put the fear of God in all of us.
Judith Caine, Donvale
Furthermore
Defence Secretary Pete Hesgeth might like to discuss his plans with NATO allies before going to war rather than expecting support afterwards when it doesn’t go to plan.
Arthur Pritchard, Ascot Vale
Football skills continue to evolve. First was the smother, now it’s the anticipation of the smother. What’s next?
John Walsh, Watsonia
