One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce has defended the party’s push for a “monoculture”, arguing the country can be multi-ethnic and multi-faith while sharing one set of values.
Mr Joyce said the term “monoculture” does not mean Australia should be made up only of people from one background, but means one common Australian culture.
“I believe in an Australian culture, that you and I live between those guardrails,” Mr Joyce told Sky News Sunday Agenda,
“Whether you’re of Vietnamese heritage or Chinese heritage or African heritage, that is not the issue.
“You’re multi-ethnicity, you’re multi-religion, there’s a whole range of that. But to be in Australia, you have to come to the point of an Australian culture.”
The comments come amid a political fight over One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s call for Australia to become “monocultural”.
The Albanese government has repeatedly criticised the term, saying its use was divisive and incompatible with modern Australia.
Education Minister Jason Clare questioned what One Nation meant by “monoculture”, arguing Australia’s diversity was a strength.
Mr Clare also pushed back against Mr Joyce’s position, saying the former deputy prime minister was a supporter of multiculturalism despite his comments.
“I’d just ask Barnaby to be true to the person that he really is,” Mr Clare told Sky News Sunday Agenda.
“Barnaby and I are mates. We’ve known each other for decades. And I know Barnaby is a good man who believes in multiculturalism.”
However, Mr Joyce rejected that characterisation, saying he did not support multiculturalism and instead wanted a shared Australian culture.
“I don’t believe in multiculturalism either so let’s be really clear about that,” Mr Joyce said.
He cited concerns about extremist interpretations of religious or political beliefs, arguing Australia needed to prevent values that were incompatible with Australia.
“For instance, in the Quran, certain Surahs, if you have the literal interpretation… You have a statement that you believe your life is worth more than someone else,” he said.
“You have certain licences to do certain things. And of course, that is intolerable and we can’t have that.
“And I might say that a literal interpretation of the Christian Bible, especially in the Old Testament, leads to the same outcome. There has to be a temperance.
“If you go to other places, especially in Europe, you can see where this has gone right off the rails. We cannot allow that to happen.”
Mr Joyce said that One Nation was not calling for Islamic immigration to stop, saying in many cases it could work “absolutely perfectly” with Australian culture.
Earlier on Sunday, Mr Clare accused the Coalition, Nationals and One Nation of wanting to be “vanilla” in their approach to culture.
“We’ve got three right-wing parties at the moment: the Libs, the Nats, and One Nation — they’re like the Neapolitan ice cream of Australian politics,” Mr Clare said.
“The problem is, they all want to be vanilla. That’s the problem here. You know, we are a multicultural country that actually makes us.”
When questioned whether he was suggesting the parties wanted a “white” Australia, Mr Clare said: “I don’t know. You’ve got to ask Barnaby (Joyce)”.
Pressed again about what he meant by vanilla, Mr Clare said: “Pretty much vanilla across the board. When it comes to policies, they’re all the same, right?”
He was specifically asked if he meant that the conservative parties wanted to reinstate a “white Australia”, he said “No”.
“No, no, no. I’m not talking about that. Think about what they want to do in terms of making it easier to sack people, lowering wages,” Mr Clare said.
The Australian Socceroos have become a flashpoint for the monoculture versus multiculture debate, with both sides using the soccer team as a reference point.
Ms Hanson said the national soccer team was an example of a monoculture, with people from different backgrounds coming together with one goal.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in response said the soccer team was an example of multiculturalism, with people from all different cultures coming together.
The debate intensified when star palyer Awer Mabil, who was born in a Kenyan refugee camp, criticised the monoculture term.
“It’s just all bulls***… If anyone is trying to divide that, then they’re probably not Australian themselves in a sense, respectfully,” he recently told reporters.
“When somebody tries to divide people based on certain things, because you don’t pick where you’re born, the colour of your skin.”
In response, Mr Joyce said that the Australian Socceroos were “probably working within the Australian guardrails” and represented monoculture.
“They’re multi-ethnicity. I don’t know them that well to say whether they’re multicultural or not. They’re multiethnicity, they have multiple beliefs,” he said.
“They obviously work for a common purpose. They played for Australia. It’s a pretty good indicator that they’re probably working within the Australian guardrails.”