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My brown skin has to crawl whenever \u201cAustralian values\u201d enter the political conversation. I had always thought they were supposed to mean fairness, decency, and a fair go for all. But when the term is politicised, it becomes harder to define. All the rhetoric turns the mind to simple lines that we all recognise from ads and films \u2013 from somewhere in the background of what we think this country is. Like Dennis Denuto says in The Castle, \u201cit\u2019s the vibe of the thing.\u201d But for me, that vibe has always felt just slightly out of reach.<\/p>\n
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On Australia Day this year, March for Australia rallies took place around the country, calling for immigration controls. Wolter Peeters<\/p>\n
I remember being in history class in Year 8 when Pauline Hanson gave her maiden speech<\/a> in which she said that Australia was in danger of being \u201cswamped by Asians\u201d. A class discussion ensued, and it was the first time I realised some of my friends held racist views but didn\u2019t quite apply them to me. I was in the room, but somehow not in the category. It was confusing but also clarifying. Whatever \u201cAustralian values\u201d were, I had just learnt they could stretch to include me, or snap back to exclude me, depending on who was speaking.<\/p>\n On April 14, Liberal Party leader Angus Taylor announced a migration plan<\/a>, wrapped up as all about \u201cAustralian values\u201d. The term is being massaged to warrant harder entry criteria for people from countries whose \u201cvalues\u201d aren\u2019t Australian. So far, however, there\u2019s been no official criteria set forth except the Australian Values Statement<\/a>, which leaves a lot of room for interpretation. The Coalition\u2019s plan will, if ever enacted, effectively give them a blank cheque when it comes to visa rejection criteria.<\/p>\n Angus Taylor tries to veil his move as simply about values, but the fact that Pauline Hanson is furious makes it obvious what\u2019s going on. Her outrage takes it out of the realm of anything subtle. It\u2019s like she\u2019s saying, \u201cThat\u2019s not a knife, this is a knife\u201d, because she\u2019s claiming to be the OG. In other words, whatever he\u2019s doing, she recognises it immediately. And that tells me everything I need to know.<\/p>\n I\u2019m Sri Lankan Tamil, often read as Indian, and that generalisation is exactly what happens when values are politicised: distinct identities are collapsed into one hazy group \u2013 and that group is pressured to assimilate. But there is a difference between assimilation and integration, and it matters. Multiculturalism asks for integration. It asks that I take part in Australian life without having to sand down the parts of myself that come from my heritage. Assimilation asks for something else. It asks me to become less myself in order to be palatable. That is what unsettles me about Australian values when they are framed as a test. I start to wonder whether I am being invited to belong, or being told to become more like whoever is doing the measuring.<\/p>\n Related Article And that worry isn\u2019t just abstract, it\u2019s lived. My parents, when they were working, would code-switch, softening their Sri Lankan accents to fit white workplaces. And I\u2019ll never forget the feeling in that classroom. It made me question where I sat in the Australian landscape. It was like being asked, \u201cWhere the bloody hell are you?\u201d but never getting a clear answer.<\/p>\n Values, at least the ones we claim to hold dear: fairness, respect, a fair go \u2013 aren\u2019t supposed to need policing. They are supposed to be lived, demonstrated, and felt. The moment they become a checklist, or a condition, or something that can be withheld, they start to shift. They stop being shared and start being controlled. And when that happens, it raises a deeper question for me: not just who is being asked to prove their values, but who is doing the judging in the first place.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just me reading it this way. Mine isn\u2019t the only brown skin that crawls. Angus Taylor is talking about us, or rather them. And even in the political response, you can feel it \u2013 this tug of war between an \u201cideal Australia\u201d and the one that\u2019s lived. Hanson\u2019s outrage, Taylor\u2019s deflection \u2013 it\u2019s all about who gets to be counted as Australian. Which is absurd, given the changing demographic of our country. But then, that\u2019s the crux of the issue.<\/p>\n Talking about race is too on the nose, so let\u2019s talk about values.<\/p>\n Denise Sivasubramaniam is a Sydney-based writer exploring cultural diversity, identity and mental health. She publishes essays on her Substack, Notes from the In-Between.<\/p>\n Get a weekly wrap of views that will challenge, champion and inform your own. Sign up for our Opinion newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Protesters](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/7b04ba57c6b31c6f854f1dbd3b3c050cc2df600cf633f7e6f7e7192231b7bae7.jpeg\")
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