As has been pointed out, what exactly constitutes Australian
culture? Peter Costello's got his heart in the right place, but by
bringing in the issue of Australian culture and then not addressing
it, he's messed up badly. On the other hand, opponents of
Costello's stand have proposed that Australian values do not differ
from common human values, and equally failed to substantiate what
these values are.
There was an interesting public debate about the Cronulla riots a
while back. A number of Cronulla residents argued that the riots
were a long time coming because the cops didn't do anything about
the trouble that was obviously brewing. Some White Australians said
that the Lebanese tended to hang around in large groups and
sexually harrass and abuse women on the beach, while some Lebanese
people said that they started hanging around in groups in the first
place because they didn't feel safe. It's six of one and half a
dozen of the other as to who's wrong and who's right and where it
all started, but one thing's for sure - this is a vicious cycle
that needs to be broken.
Fact is that in broad strokes, Costello's right. Except for
refugees, people who take up residency in Australia do so by
choice, and if they don't like it, they can jolly well leave. If
we're talking universal rules of conduct here, everybody knows that
you don't enter another guy's house and proceed to sh!t on his
living room carpet, so what's the beef? Costello's just stating the
obvious, and that's a good point at which to start breaking the
vicious cycle. I for one am glad that someone's finally got the
balls to stand up and say something useful instead of hiding behind
politically correct and practically useless piffle.
