Multicultural Australia Won’t Buy Coalition’s Fear

As the May 3, 2025, federal election looms, Peter Dutton’s Coalition is reaching for a well-worn page from its political playbook: divide and conquer.

Through calculated fearmongering, inflammatory rhetoric, and thinly veiled racial dog-whistling, the Opposition appears intent on weaponising identity politics in the hope of turning back electoral tides. But there’s one problem: Australia has changed—and this time, the race card won’t work.

The Coalition has amplified anxieties about migration, “Australian values,” and cultural cohesion. Dutton’s repeated framing of migrants as a threat to social services and his attempts to link crime with ethnicity follow the same formula that once fuelled the 2001 Tampa affair and post-9/11 Islamophobia. But where those scare tactics once found traction, they now run into the reality of a modern, inclusive Australia—one that is increasingly united, not divided, by its diversity.

The data is irrefutable. Nearly half of all Australians were either born overseas or have a parent who was. More than 300 languages are spoken in homes across the country, and over 50% of Australians identify with an ancestry outside the Anglo-Celtic tradition. This isn’t just demographic detail—it’s national identity.

Yet Dutton and others continue to push a narrative of fear. “Too much migration,” “threats to values,” and “dividing Australians by race”—phrases echoing across press conferences and interviews. But it’s the Coalition itself that perpetuates division by weaponising identity and exploiting cultural anxieties for political gain.

Recent political events highlight just how out of step this approach has become. In the wake of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum, the defeat didn’t fracture the country—it galvanised it. Massive grassroots movements emerged, calling for truth-telling and treaty. Australians turned out in droves for rallies, walked side by side with First Nations leaders, and refused to let a political loss extinguish a moral cause.

Local and state elections in 2024 further signalled the public’s rejection of race-baiting politics. Candidates from diverse cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds gained traction across party lines. Nowhere was this more apparent than in Melbourne, where Jamal Hakim—a proud LGBTQIA+ advocate, son of Lebanese migrants, and community sector leader—ran for Lord Mayor on a platform of inclusion, climate resilience, cultural celebration, and public transparency.

Hakim’s campaign was unapologetically progressive and deeply reflective of the modern Australia the Coalition refuses to acknowledge. He spoke out against the weaponisation of race, stood firm on supporting Palestinian human rights, and refused to shy away from debates that made conservative media uncomfortable. In return, he gained widespread support from residents across all demographics, proving voters are hungry for leaders who represent what the country looks and feels like today—not what it was 30 years ago.

His candidacy wasn’t without resistance. Sections of the media engaged in what many called xenophobic and homophobic attacks. Yet the backlash against those attacks only strengthened support for Hakim, further illustrating that the politics of fear are losing their grip.

At a national level, the Albanese government’s efforts to reshape the citizenship process by including Indigenous history, civic engagement, and multicultural education have been widely embraced. Harmony Week events, NAIDOC Week celebrations, and refugee welcome festivals are drawing record participation. It isn’t virtue signalling. It’s the lived experience of a country embracing its future.

Australians are no longer content to let racist rhetoric slide. When Sky News aired sensationalist segments linking crime to African communities, the backlash was immediate—not just from activists, but from law enforcement, community leaders, and corporate sponsors. When Andrew Bolt reignited tired claims of “reverse racism,” he was met with widespread condemnation and corporate disengagement. Australia’s media and public now reject the old tropes.

The 2024 Scanlon Foundation Social Cohesion Report found over 70% of Australians have positive attitudes towards people of different backgrounds. More than 80% believe multiculturalism strengthens Australia. These aren’t abstract ideals—they’re the lived beliefs of a broad majority.

Even international observers are noticing. A 2025 OECD report ranked Australia among the top five most socially integrated nations, praising its balance of cultural diversity and democratic values. This recognition underscores what many Australians already know: diversity is not a threat—it’s a strength.

Despite this, the Coalition’s messaging continues to lean on fear. But Australians know better. Refugees have become doctors, teachers, Olympians, and parliamentarians. Muslim Australians have defended the country in uniform. Indigenous knowledge has helped fight climate change. And candidates like Jamal Hakim have become powerful voices for a new generation of civic leadership that doesn’t fit the traditional mould—and doesn’t need to.

The strategy of pitting Australians against each other based on race, religion, or culture isn’t only outdated—it’s insulting. The race card may once have won elections. But in 2025, it’s political poison. Australians want vision, not vilification. They want leadership, not division. And they want a government that sees them for who they are—diverse, proud, and ready to move forward together.

Peter Dutton and the federal Coalition is not what Australia needs.