Pauline Hanson says Socceroos represent her vision of ‘monoculture’

Pauline Hanson says the Socceroos represent her vision for a “monocultural Australia”, offering a significantly watered-down explanation for the term while moderate Liberal MPs stepped forward to support multiculturalism.

A week after the One Nation leader said at her National Press Club address that Australia must be monocultural – a word that typically implies homogenous language, religion, customs and traditions – Hanson clarified her version involved people from different backgrounds, cultures and nations uniting under one set of rules.

“It is welcoming. It’s an umbrella which covers all manner of difference. It’s not a dirty word,” she said in the Senate.

The Coalition also mopped up its position on the issue on Wednesday, after opposition leader Angus Taylor on Tuesday would not say whether he backed a multicultural vision of Australia under repeated questioning.

“We need every Australian to believe in our system of law, to believe in our basic freedoms, to believe in our parliamentary democracy, and people have been coming to this country in recent times who do not believe in those things, and that should not happen,” Taylor told 2GB.

“Now, you can call that whatever you like, but I just think that’s common sense, and I’d rather talk about common sense on this than these labels that people love to give. You know, it is a version of multiculturalism.”

He argued that “Labor’s multiculturalism” was creating an environment in which “anyone can come here with any culture and it’s all okay”.

Deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume, also speaking on Wednesday morning, said the debate over whether Australia should be a multicultural or monocultural nation was a “ridiculous argument”.

“I can’t believe that we’ve managed to get ourselves into this. I’m sorry, I reject the politics of identity of the left on multiculturalism, but my goodness, I also reject the policy of cultural fear from the right. We are a multicultural society,” she said.

Fellow Liberal moderate and frontbencher Anne Ruston said she “absolutely” supported multiculturalism.

“We in the Coalition believe in an Australia where everyone respects our laws, they share our values and contributes to the fabric of our country. And that is multiculturalism, and that is what we believe in,” she said on Radio National.

South Australian senator and moderate Andrew McLachlan told this masthead that “multiculturalism in Australia is one of the finest achievements of our nation. Our diversity underpins our place in the world”.

Privately, several MPs who asked not to be named said they were alarmed at how Taylor had mishandled the debate. “He has been tying himself up in knots,” one MP said.

Hanson on Tuesday cited Japan as an example of a monocultural society and asked why Australia could not be the same. But on Wednesday, she suggested she had been misrepresented.

“The far left have naturally taken my comments into the realm of utter fantasy. I was going to ban foreign food and the Socceroos wouldn’t have beaten Turkey under my policy. What rubbish, predictable and pathetic,” Hanson told the Senate.

“The Socceroos, in fact, represent my vision of a multicultural [sic] … of a monocultural Australia. People from different backgrounds and cultures and nations all wearing green and gold and representing one nation under one flag and succeeding under the same set of rules.”

Multicultural affairs minister Anne Aly then accused the One Nation leader of using the Socceroos to make her views “palatable”.

“They all wear the same jersey, but they’re not monocultural, let’s make that clear,” she said.

The Australian team released a video before the World Cup tournament that explained different players’ origins, including several who arrived as refugees.

“It was a moment to describe what Australia is, and Australia is a very multicultural country, and that’s what makes it the best country in the world, in my opinion – it is the best country in the world because of that,” player Awer Mabil said last week.

Professor Alan Gamlen, Director of the ANU Migration Hub, said no society was truly monocultural and the debate was dealing with the wrong binary. “The real question is how societies balance unity and diversity,” he said.

“How far do we push the idea of conformity? I think most Australians wouldn’t want the government telling them how to dress, how to worship, how to talk.”

Gamlen said there was a tension in Hanson calling for a “monoculture, and then citing a very clear example of successful multiculturalism as an example of it”.

“The fact we have national institutions and symbols like the Socceroos is a perfect illustration that we have that,” he said.

“The range of things that we’re really disagreeing about is actually quite narrow.”

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