{"id":809448,"date":"2026-07-19T03:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T03:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/809448\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T03:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T03:38:11","slug":"senator-andrew-bragg-defies-liberal-president-tony-abbotts-failed-multiculturalism-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/809448\/","title":{"rendered":"Senator Andrew Bragg defies Liberal president Tony Abbott’s ‘failed’ multiculturalism claim"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shadow housing minister Andrew Bragg has rejected claims from Liberal Party president and former prime minister Tony Abbott that multiculturalism has “failed” in Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a speech posted to social media on Wednesday, Mr Abbott also said diversity was “not a strength,” and accused Muslim leaders of being more interested in “chiding the public” over Islamophobia than condemning the Bondi terror attack, which police allege was motivated by Islamic State ideology.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Senator Bragg told the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday the comments did not reflect the feelings of elected Liberal members in Parliament.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“He’s a former prime minister, he is entitled to his views, but I strongly disagree with them,” Senator Bragg said.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s very important as leaders in the parliamentary party that we are clear on what multiculturalism is and how it fits into a liberal framework and modern Australia.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Abbott was elected unopposed as Liberal Party president in May.<\/a><\/p>\n

On Thursday, Assistant Multicultural Affairs Minister Julian Hill labelled Mr Abbott’s comments “disgusting” and “demeaning” and said the party had to take responsibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The Liberal Party today can’t distance themselves from this bloke, from these Neanderthal, offensive views. They made him their president,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“That was a choice they made and it happened only a few months ago.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asked if he wanted Mr Abbott’s commentary to stop, Senator Bragg said he was “not his spokesperson”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I’d make the point that liberalism has actually created multiculturalism because it creates a framework for people to have freedom of religion, freedom of thought, freedom of conscience, and the Liberal Party built modern Australia,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Pauline<\/p>\n

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson spoke at a conservative political conference in London. (ABC News: Riley Stuart)<\/p>\n

Hanson comments on transgender people ‘insane’\u00a0<\/p>\n

Senator Bragg also took aim at Pauline Hanson, who said in a speech to a conservative political conference in London <\/a>that Australia “can’t determine who is a male and female”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The One Nation leader said Australia was “too stupid” and that common sense had been “pushed to one side” in regards to gender.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Senator Bragg, who has previously voted to grant transgender children access to gender affirming healthcare, said Senator Hanson was going out of her way to make life harder for minorities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We have men and women, we have other people, and the reality is that if you want to have a free and fair society \u2026 I just don’t accept the view Pauline Hanson expresses that it’s some great risk to Australia,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Where there have been issues, they should be addressed. But the idea that there’s a spectre of transgender people taking over Australia, I just think is insane.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Opposition leader Angus Taylor has vowed to change Australia’s Sex Discrimination Act t<\/a>o include a definition of biological sex after the Federal Court upheld a landmark ruling that the exclusion of a transgender woman from a female-only app was discriminatory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shadow housing minister Andrew Bragg has rejected claims from Liberal Party president and former prime minister Tony Abbott…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":809449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[103540,64,63,69,143736,10940,78250,44,60504,14754,84,64171,46785],"class_list":["post-809448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-andrew-bragg","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-federal-government","tag-julian-hill","tag-liberal-party","tag-multiculturalism","tag-news","tag-one-nation","tag-pauline-hanson","tag-politics","tag-tony-abbott","tag-transgender"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}