Hanson has tapped into angst about immigration, but it remains central to the Australian story
By Frank Bongiorno, Director, Vice-Chancellor's Centre of Public Ideas (CoPI) and Donald Horne Professor of History and Public Ideas, University of Canberra
Pauline Hanson’s National Press Club address last week reminded us she doesn’t like multiculturalism, she sees immigration as responsible for most of the country’s problems, and she regards the values of some immigrants as inimical to a predominantly “Judeo-Christian society”. She called for “monoculturalism” to replace “multiculturalism”.
These kinds of views are not new for Hanson, nor for Australia. Billy Snedden, who served as Liberal immigration minister (and later Leader), called for a “monoculture” in 1969. The political right’s critique of multiculturalism took off in the 1980s…
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Monday, June 22, 2026