(Transcript from World News Australia Radio)
A Sydney researcher has called for a dramatic scaling back of government funding and support for multicultural programs, claiming some are unnecessary and potentially divisive.
Centre for Independent Studies research fellow Peter Kurti has raised his concerns in a policy paper entitled "Multiculturalism and the Fetish of Diversity".
In the paper, the Anglican minister and philosopher questions the need for multicultural affairs ministers, saying governments should get out of the business of promoting cultural diversity.
But as Michael Kenny reports, migrant community groups strongly disagree.
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Researcher Peter Kurti claims Australian values are coming under threat as a direct result of what he terms state-sponsored "hard multiculturalism".
He believes many supporters of Australian multiculturalism, including in the bureaucracy, are too reluctant to speak out against cultural practices which aren't in line with what he calls Australian values.
He cites the examples of forced marriages of underage girls, and female genital mutilation.
Reverend Kurti also believes many of what he terms 'hard multiculturalists' in Australia are too tolerant towards Islam, and are hesitant to speak out about the lack of rights granted to women in a number of Muslim countries.
The researcher believes supporters of multiculturalism are alarmingly intolerant of contrary points of view and quickly label them judgmental, discriminatory or racist.
"What began as a sincere desire to eliminate racist prejudice and promote cultural diversity, I think has instead turned into a determined drive to promote diversity as a moral and political end. So hard multiculturalism opposes social integration and it does so by pursuing a program of diversity which my fear is that it doesn't then tolerate divergent points of view."
Reverend Kurti is pleased the Abbott government has abolished the position of Multicultural Affairs Minister.
He also backs the government's decision to end the Building Multicultural Communities Program in July.
The multi-million dollar federal grants scheme, launched by the former Labor government, provides one-off funding of up to $160,000 to community groups and local government bodies working to promote and foster social cohesion.
Reverend Kurti says he also supports a proposal by the Abbott government to remove 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act which makes it illegal to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate someone on the basis of race.
He believes the government has adopted a sensible position so far on multiculturalism.
"There is still representation in the ministry for multicultural affairs (through a parliamentary secretary), but it is no longer a minister. We'll see what the Abbott government does. It's too early to say, but I think they do at this stage seem to be retreating somewhat and I think in a positive way from the outposts as it were of hard multiculturalism."
The Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia says successive federal Labor and Coalition governments have seen multicultural programs as a way of promoting social cohesion by helping settlement of newly-arrived migrants.
The organisation's Chairman Joe Caputo believes Reverend Kurti's claims about government funding are misguided.
"The state does not promote multiculturalism as such. What the state does is that when it provides funding for groups from non English speaking backgrounds, it funds them on the basis of the project and the services provided. They are projects and services which would probably in most cases be much more expensive if the state were to provide those projects and services."
That's a view shared by the Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane.
He believes any move to scale back government funding and support for multicultural programs could end up hurting migrant communities.
"Before we had multiculturalism, we had a form of assimiliation where governments didn't take any active steps to recognise cultural identities and what you had was a society where migrants struggled to get a foothold in society. The evidence is very clear. Indeed one reason why the assimilationist mode of dealing with immigrants was abandoned was because you had an increasing number of migrants returning to their home countries in the late 1960s. You had pockets of disadvantage in our cities. We have now avoided that because of multicultural policies."
FECCA Chairman Joe Caputo believes Reverend Kurti's arguments around cultural practices in some migrant communities are also flawed.
He says migrant community organisations such as FECCA have never supported practices such as the forced marriage of underage girls or female genital mutilation.
"We at the Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia- we will always speak out against any form of unacceptable practices or prejudice, whatever it may be. If we see that there is also prejudice in some of the older non English speaking groups who arrived here in the 1940s and 1950s and we will not stand by that. We will actually stand up and say that bad practices are to be eliminated."
Reverend Kurti argues that state and federal governments need to make it clearer that all Australians should embrace a common set of values, regardless of their racial or religious background.
"I think that there are some principles that define us as a nation. We are committed to a democratic parliamentary tradition. Our way of life here is undergirded by the rule of law which must equally apply to all Australians. We have I think a sense of what we call in colloquial terms a sense of mateship or the fair go and a willingness to recognise the equality of all people before the law. Those are the sorts of values which I think need to be upheld and defended. My concern is that if we start to give preference to particular groups or minority rights, then those overarching values will be diminished."
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