Good ol’ Aussie values
 | Posted by The Editor on Wednesday 15 August 2007, 3:36 pm Categories: Politics Tags: Tags: immigration, JohnRoskam, values |
I’ve long banged on about how infuriating it is for our government (and opposition) to try and force “Australian values” on prospective immigrants. I’ve also agreed before with John Roskam and today I’m agreeing with him again after another excellent piece in The Age.
THE problem with the Howard Government’s new citizenship test is not the requirement that applicants must learn English… Of more concern is the obligation on candidates for citizenship to uphold “Australian values”. The problem is that these are impossible to define. No one, ever, should be required to commit to something as subjective and vague as “Australian values”. The only obligation that is reasonable to impose on new citizens is the responsibility to obey the law — nothing more and nothing less.
While we like to believe that “a fair go” and “mateship” are part of our national culture — and perhaps they are — these sentiments can’t be turned into a set of administrative rules. Yet this is exactly what the Government is suggesting should happen.
A fortnight ago, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship Kevin Andrews spelt out some of what he believed were part of the country’s values. They included freedom of speech, freedom of religion, support for parliamentary democracy and the rule of law, equality of men and women, tolerance, compassion for those in need, and peacefulness.
The first thing to notice is that there’s nothing uniquely Australian about many of these values. They exist in any liberal democratic country.
But insisting that immigrants hold unmeasurable and undefinable “values” before they enter the country, that many natives fail to hold themselves, makes for an awesome dog whistle to those Australians who hold other values: xenophobia and racism.
GrodsThink Ep.29 (26/8/08)
Wednesday 15 August 2007, 4:29 pm #Stumps
It’s true that it’s difficult, or even impossible, to enforce “values”, so the article is indeed correct from that perspective, but to nit-pick, I don’t see what it matters that the identified “Australian values” aren’t unique (nor do I see anybody pretending that they are). “Australian climate” is hot and dry, and that’s not unique either. You can possess a quality and share it with others at the same time.
Wednesday 15 August 2007, 4:31 pm #The Editor
I don’t see what it matters that the identified “Australian values” aren’t unique
Agreed. Will somebody tell that to Howard and co. the next time they crap on about how unique “mateship” is to Australians.
Gallipoli. The vibe.
Wednesday 15 August 2007, 4:59 pm #J, The
I agree that the values listed are common to liberal democracies (rhetorically anyhow). I think a more interesting question about “Australian-ness” is not about values, so much as self-perceptions.
For example, I think that we still think we believe in a “fair go,” but this simply does not match people’s real attitudes.
Hugh Mackay has done social demographic research which shows that there is a bigger divide between Australia’s rich and poor than ever before: the top 20% are on $225,000 per year, the bottom on less than $20,000. Those richest have a sense of entitlement, Mackay observes, believing that every society has its “losers.” We are no longer a classless society and a fair go attitude has been redefined, so when we say we believe it, we don’t mean we should give the less privileged a hand to equalise the playing field, but instead, that if “I could pull myself up by my bootstraps, so can they.”
So if we quiz prospective Australians to establish whether they will fit in, are the right answers what Australians really believe these days, or what we would like to think we do?
Wednesday 15 August 2007, 8:20 pm #brokenleftleg
I’ve taken the piss out of Aussie Values in video form on my blog.
It’s called Kevin Andrews and Bazza talk intergration.
From my point of view, those who bang on most about aussie values are usually the most arrogant and dim-witted bogans in the country.
it’s probably best new migrants don’t intergrate with the bogan’s value system at all.
Wednesday 15 August 2007, 10:09 pm #Mikey
It’s mabo …
A fine post Grods. Indeed, come here, obey the law. Really that’s all we need. And if you’ve got issues about your own cultural values then by all means stick to them. Your kids won’t. Within two generations they will be blended ozzers like the rest of us for the most part.
Thursday 16 August 2007, 9:45 am #Jangari
I feel like I want to throw up whenever I (inadvertently) see one of the commercial current affairs shows when they have one of their more common ‘Aussies values’ stories, complete with graphic of partially-transparent Australian flag, behind which runs the footage of any given Anzac day parade or the most recent Big Day Out, when the flag was the most popular item of clothing. Then the story always turns into ‘who doesn’t respect Aussie values’. The most recent of these (which I saw on Mediawatch) had the ‘reporter’ asking Japanese girls who’d been in Australia for two and three years whether they know who Don Bradman is. For fuck’s sake.
In a typically moral absolutist trend, the government is trying to crystalise some fiction of common moral values into county-wide law. It can’t be done. What about the hairier values that a lot (though probably not a majority) of Australians observe? Ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity come to mind.