Australia’s immigration debate: Old arguments return in new form

CANBERRA, Australia (MNTV) —  Calls by One Nation party’s Pauline Hanson to replace multiculturalism with monoculturalism have reignited one of Australia’s oldest political debates. Yet despite recurring waves of anti-immigration sentiment stretching back more than a century, Australia continues to identify strongly as an immigrant nation. 

During her National Press Club address last week, she argued that immigration is responsible for many of Australia’s social and economic problems and suggested that the values of some migrant communities are incompatible with what she described as a predominantly “Judeo-Christian society.” Her remarks have been widely interpreted as a renewed push against Australia’s multicultural model. 

While Hanson’s comments attracted attention, the arguments she advanced are far from new in Australian political history.

Opposition to multiculturalism has been present for decades, including within mainstream political circles. In 1969, former Liberal immigration minister Billy Snedden called for a “monoculture,” reflecting concerns within sections of the political establishment about the pace and direction of postwar immigration.

Through the 1980s and 1990s, criticism of multiculturalism intensified, often framed as a cultural or social concern rather than purely an economic one. 

However, as Australia’s migrant intake diversified, political attention increasingly focused on specific communities. In recent decades, Muslims and African migrants in particular have been more frequently singled out in public debate, echoing earlier patterns in which newly arrived groups were portrayed as social or cultural threats.

Historians say that in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Irish Catholics were viewed with suspicion by sections of the Protestant establishment, while southern European migrants, particularly Italians, were subject to derogatory stereotypes. Later waves of Vietnamese and Asian migration also became focal points for political and social anxiety.

Such narratives have often been accompanied by predictions of social breakdown or violence. In the late 1960s, British politician Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood” speech influenced similar warnings in Australia that rising Asian immigration would lead to civil unrest. 

Hanson’s own entry into federal politics in the 1990s, particularly her maiden speech warning that Australia risked being “swamped by Asians,” drew on these longstanding themes.

Despite recurring predictions of social collapse, Australia’s experience has not matched these warnings. While tensions and isolated incidents have occurred, including the 2005 Cronulla riots, Australia has largely maintained social cohesion through successive waves of migration.

The late historian Stuart Macintyre observed in 2017 that while populist movements have periodically emerged in Australia, Canada and New Zealand, they have tended to remain politically limited and short-lived. 

These countries, he argued, share characteristics including economic resilience and long histories as settler societies that have gradually incorporated diverse migrant populations. 

However, contemporary data suggests Australia’s political landscape may be shifting. Survey evidence from the Australian Election Study (AES) shows that attitudes toward immigration have fluctuated over time, often in response to economic conditions. 

In 1996, 63% of respondents wanted immigration reduced. That figure fell during periods of economic confidence, such as the mid-2000s China boom, but rose again following the global financial crisis and more recent cost-of-living pressures.

By 2025, more than half of respondents indicated support for reducing immigration, according to AES findings, while Scanlon Foundation research found 51% of Australians believed immigration levels were too high.

At the same time, broader attitudes toward multiculturalism remain largely positive. The Scanlon Foundation’s 2025 Mapping Social Cohesion survey found that 83% of respondents agreed multiculturalism has been good for Australia, although this figure has declined slightly from previous years.