Multicultural Australia has enriched the nation’s cultural life, creativity and global standing. These achievements deserve recognition and defence at a time of growing hostility to migration.

Migrants, refugees and visitors have enriched Australia over the years. Multiculturalism is as a source of creativity and achievement. Inclusive policies are the basis of Australia’s outreach and international standing.

In 2025, multicultural achievements have been outstanding and should be celebrated. Regrettably, they are not. The enemies of globalisation and supporters of Trumpian isolationism prefer patriarchy, ignorance and poverty. Leaping onto the bandwagon, Australian far-right lobbies call for a return to the days of White Australia. They want to slash “mass migration”. In this they threaten our economy, our social cohesion and our way of life.

In a powerful election campaign address in Pittsburgh Virginia in 1976, Jimmy Carter said that America’s diversity was “a sign of strength…. We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic.”

His remarks in fact apply to Australia today more than they did to America in the 1970s when the civil rights movement struggled to rebuild itself after the assassination of Martin Luther King. Australia was then and is now stronger than the US in resisting racism and anti-foreign feeling, since multiculturalism is a core government policy, while the US approach to multiculturalism is mainly bottom-up, being driven by minority groups.

Consider the enormous contributions of multicultural Australia to our national culture in 2025.

Over the last year, Australian literature has increasingly reflected the diverse experiences of Asian and other migrant communities and created sympathy and understanding across society. Brisbane author Siang Lu won this year’s Miles Franklin prize for Ghost Cities.  Michelle de Kretser won the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Theory and Practice. In New South Wales, Nam Le’s 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem was Book of the Year. Candice Chung’s Chinese Parents Don’t Say I Love You: A Memoir of Saying the Unsayable with Food has been a best seller. Publishers such as Giramondo in Western Sydney provide unique opportunities for writers from this splendidly multicultural region.

No survey of Australian writing can ignore the contributions of diverse ethnic communities.

The art world also turned to Asia in 2025. Sydney launched 2025 with a blockbuster exhibition of work by Chinese artist Cao Fei, My City is Yours, bridging the cultures of Sydney and Guangzhou. Now towards the end of the year, the Western Australian Museum is hosting Terracotta Warriors: Legacy of the First Emperor, and the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art has a major Indian exhibition: The God of Small Things: Faith and Popular Culture, with work by contemporary artist Raja Ravi Varma.

Such cultural developments are strongly supported by community organisations such as TAASA (The Asian Arts Society of Australia), the 4A Centre for Contemporary Art, Sydney and and CAAP (Contemporary Asian Australian Performance). The Institute for Australian and Asian Arts and Culture at Western Sydney University promotes creative work by Asian Australians. Asia TOPA (the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts), the Melbourne-based major triennial regional performing arts festival, resumed events in February 2025 after a five year pause since COVID, showcasing international and local performances and featuring Australian Indigenous artists.

Some may think that these examples all apply to “high culture” and are of marginal relevance to the person in the street. I would point them to the significant influence of Korean K-pop music. Rose’s _Apt_ was the first K-pop artist to win the MTV Video Music Song of the Year in 2025. This year’s Melbourne Comedy Festival headlined stand-up comedians of diverse ethnic background such as the Brown Women Comedy as well as established artists such as Jenny Tian, Michael Hing and Nazeem Hussain.

There are also plenty of contributions from multicultural Australia to our national obsession with sport. Australians of immigrant background also shine in national sports. Wallabies coach Eddie Jones of international fame is of Japanese descent. The families of young Socceroos star Garang Kuol and runners Peter Bol and Gout Gout come from South Sudan. Golfer brother and sister Minjee and Min Woo Lee have Korean heritage and Jason Day’s mother is from the Philippines.

As for cuisine, it is impossible to think of Australian food today without acknowledging pioneers like Kylie Kwong, Cheong Liew, Dan Hong or Adam Liaw. Greg Malouf introduced Lebanese haute cuisine to Melbourne a decade ago. More recently MasterChef Australia winners have included Indian Australian chefs including Sashi Cheliah and Justin Narayan.

These events all foster cultural connection, challenge stereotypes and explore themes of history and technology. Culture is not static. It develops through exchange and reciprocity. Choke off mobility through bans on migration and international study, hike student fees for “unproductive” courses in art and music, spruik “national values” based on a notion of inherited whiteness, and you will condemn Australia to irrelevance and obsolescence.

Governments should focus on the positive and empowering aspects of immigration. The One Nation political party scapegoats immigrants, blaming them for stagnant wages, the housing crisis and strains on essential services and infrastructure, with little or no evidence of any causal connection.  Enough of this racist rhetoric!  It is better to speak of our “beautiful mosaic”.