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What does it mean to be a multicultural society?
Australia’s multicultural policy “promotes acceptance of and respect for our cultural diversity. It embraces our Australian-grown customs and the heritage of Indigenous Australians, early settlers, and the diverse range of migrants now coming to this country. It supports the right of each Australian to maintain and celebrate, within the law, their culture, language or religion. The freedom of all Australians to express and share their cultural values is dependent on our abiding by mutual civic obligations. All Australians are expected to have an overriding loyalty to Australia and its people, and to respect the basic structures and principles underwriting our democratic society. These are the Constitution, parliamentary democracy, freedom of speech and religion, English as the national language, the rule of law, acceptance and equality.” [1]Four principles underpin this policy:
Responsibilities of all – all Australians have a civic duty to support those basic structures and principles of Australian society which guarantee us our freedom and equality and enable diversity in our society to flourish;
Respect for each person – subject to the law, all Australians have the right to express their own culture and beliefs and have a reciprocal obligation to respect the right of others to do the same;
Fairness for each person – all Australians are entitled to equality of treatment and opportunity. Social equity allows us all to contribute to the social, political and economic life of Australia, free from discrimination, including on the grounds of race, culture, religion, language, location, gender or place of birth; and
Benefits for all – all Australians benefit from productive diversity, that is, the significant cultural, social and economic dividends arising from the diversity of our population. Diversity works for all Australians.
Resource: Commonwealth of Australia. (2003). Multicultural Australia: United In Diversity.
This section of the website offers a brief overview of the following areas of policy development in the areas of cultural diversity and multiculturalism:
Diversity and multiculturalism from a policy perspective
Federal and Victorian education policy initiatives addressing cultural diversity in schools
Commonwealth Policy Initiatives
Victorian Government Education Policy Initiatives
Multicultural Education Policy Resources
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(1) DIMA. Australian Multicultural Policy (2003) http://www.immi.gov.au/multicultural/australian/index.htm