Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong has sharply criticized One Nation leader Pauline Hanson's advocacy for a monocultural society, stating it would damage Australia's social fabric and national security. Wong described Hanson's vision as a "melancholic fantasy" that would harm Australia's ability to engage with the world.
"The call for a monoculture is a call for Australia to curtail our choices and cut off our connections," Wong said during a speech at the Lowy Institute on Friday. "To look inwards, to have no friends to work with, no partners to trade with, no opportunities to grow from. To be lonely in a dangerous world."
Wong asserted that division weakens a nation, making it easier to exploit. "Turning Australians against each other is the opposite of patriotism," she stated, adding that those who "seek to divide for clicks and votes" make Australia less secure both domestically and internationally.
"But well before we could ever realise this melancholic fantasy of monoculture, there is a lot of damage that can be done," Wong warned. "Because Australians would be turned against each other. Australia would be a more hostile place. Harder to be family, harder to be a friend, colleague or neighbour."
These remarks follow Hanson's comments in June at the National Press Club, where she advocated for a monocultural society despite Australia being multiracial. "We cannot be a multicultural society. We are a multiracial society, but we must be monocultural. Australians must live under the one cultural umbrella," Hanson had said.
Shortly after her National Press Club address, Hanson suggested Australians should "never be afraid to debate any issue" and be willing to "challenge long-held assumptions." She further commented, "You'd be forgiven for thinking I had slaughtered a sacred cow at the National Press Club last week... It's exactly what I intended."
Wong's speech comes weeks after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese referenced One Nation in his address at the Labor Party conference, criticizing culture war rhetoric. Albanese stated, "All those attention-seeking culture wars imported from overseas, all those trips around the world to talk Australia down, cannot disguise the fact that none of them have anything new or anything positive to offer our country."
He further argued that genuine frustrations require practical solutions, not just emotional responses. "People's genuine frustrations deserve a practical response, not just an emotional one because a list of problems only counts for something if it comes with solutions. You can go a long way in politics for a long time by raging against a system that you're a part of without a plan to fix it."