Many people who oppose mass migration to this country worry that it is undermining our social cohesion and national identity. The Bondi massacre targeting Jews and perpetrated by two Islamic extremists, one of whom was an immigrant, has brought these fears into stark relief. Some conservative commentators have even cited this atrocity as a reason to scale back our immigration program. I think this is wrong and unfair, tarring all immigrant communities with the same brush. It takes attention away from the pathology of Islamic extremism, which I agree must be stamped out in this country, including by better vetting of would-be migrants from countries where antisemitic beliefs are common. And it lets our political, bureaucratic, corporate, educational and cultural leaders off the hook for the harm they have done to our social cohesion in recent decades. This should be a major focus of Virginia Bell’s royal commission. To test this proposition, let’s consider the shocking and unexpected rise of antisemitism in this country since the slaughter of 1200 Jews by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
While this form of hatred has always been with us, before that day it was no more than a niche, underground phenomenon. You could find it in a handful of mosques in western Sydney, the odd elite university lecture theatre, and among local neo-Nazis, but virtually nowhere else. Yet today, antisemitism has been mainstreamed and even glorified under the guise of hostility to Israel and Zionists. Why? Because our local elites have looked the other way, and in some cases even promoted it, with our elite university vice-chancellors the worst culprits and few top people in corporate, public service or cultural circles bothering to speak up until Bondi shamed a small number of them into action. Nor has there been any leadership shown by our law enforcement officials and political leaders, with NSW Premier Chris Minns an honourable exception. When I look at footage of the pro-Palestinian rallies, I don’t see any Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese or African faces. Nor do I see tradies or other working-class Australians. Aside from the usual contingent of Muslim radicals, the vast majority appear to be white, upper-middle class university students – our future progressive elite.
The pernicious influence of local elites extends well beyond the rise of antisemitism. For decades now, they have been peddling an imported, hateful progressive ideology that has eaten away at the foundations of our social cohesion and cultural inheritance. Our patriotism. Our sense of community. And our distinctive Australian creedal values. They have assaulted the distinctive brand of Australian patriotism that emerged after World War 1 – less demonstrative and historically obsessed than that of Americans, less triumphalist than the British version. Instead, they teach our children that our history is shameful and something to apologise for. They have undermined our sense of being a single, cohesive community – ethnically, racially and economically diverse, but all of us at heart Australians – by dividing us into a rigid hierarchy of identity groups with conflicting outlooks, ambitions and interests. As Amartya Sen pointed out, when we reduce many-sided human beings to a single, immutable identity characteristic, conflict and violence necessarily follow.
They sneer at and seek to undermine what I call the Australian creed – our instinctive egalitarianism and mateship, our love of freedom, our tolerance of difference, our respect for merit and character, and our healthy suspicion of authority. In the interests of social justice, they tell us we must sacrifice our political freedoms, including the freedom of speech, the idea of equality before the law and with the voice equal democratic rights. What should we do to counter the progressive assault? As tempting as it might be for some, the answer is not to rewind the clock to 1950, or even 1980. If we are to reclaim our cultural heritage, we have no choice: we must question and resist the progressive takeover of our institutions. Not by seeking to replace one political orthodoxy with another; Australia’s cultural inheritance has never been monopolised by the right – Bob Hawke, after all, was a great patriot and believer in Australian values. And not by importing uncritically the methods of Donald Trump or Nigel Farage. But in the best Australian tradition: peacefully, constructively, and boldly, and relying on the merits of our arguments.
After all, Australian values are far more appealing than progressive ones, which is why progressives can only smear or seek to cancel their critics rather than debate and seek to persuade them. Reforming our leading institutions will take time, but we have to start somewhere. Simple personal gestures matter. Flying the Australian flag, expressing a love of this country, for all its flaws, seeing each other as Australians first and foremost, and restoring meritocracy in the public service and other institutions are good places to start. Not being intimidated by the name-calling of progressives is essential. The anti-immigration protesters who say the barbarians are at the gate have got it wrong. The barbarians have been undermining us from within. If we massively scaled back immigration but did nothing about the progressive assault on our culture, it would not save us from becoming divided, lost and less prosperous; yet another second-rate, derivative European country. If, on the other hand, we reclaim our unique cultural inheritance, a well-managed immigration program can continue to strengthen and enrich us, just as it has since our founding.
Source: This opinion piece was written by David Pearl a former Treasury assistant secretary.