乔治·布兰迪斯近日发表评论，对托尼·阿博特关于澳大利亚多元文化政策的言论提出质疑。[1]阿博特近期宣称多元文化主义已经失败，声称"多样性不是我们的力量"。[1]布兰迪斯通过对比自己在1960年代多元移民社区的成长经历与阿博特的经历，指出阿博特对澳大利亚历史的回忆存在偏差。[1]
澳大利亚"白澳政策"的废除主要是由门齐斯领导的自由党政府推进的。[1]门齐斯政府在1966年通过《移民法》正式废除了这一政策。[1]门齐斯曾在1963年表示："我们需要的是每个来自特定种族或信仰的人保持自己的品质，但将其加入到社区其他所有人的品质中。"[1]历史学家大卫·肯普指出，门齐斯及其部长们"在其废除中做了大部分艰巨工作"。[1]相比之下，工党领导人阿瑟·卡尔韦尔直到1967年一直是"白澳政策"的倡导者。[1]
在门齐斯之后，马尔科姆·弗雷泽在1975年担任反对党领导人时倡导多元文化主义政策，并在担任总理期间通过多项举措推进这一政策，包括创建澳大利亚特色广播电视公司。[1]
Former Attorney-General George Brandis has challenged Tony Abbott's recent criticism of multiculturalism, arguing that Abbott's recollection of Australia's past differs significantly from historical reality and from the experiences of those who lived through the period.[1] Brandis, drawing on his own upbringing in multicultural communities during the 1960s, contends that Abbott misrepresents the origins of Australia's shift away from the White Australia Policy.[1]
The dismantling of the White Australia Policy occurred primarily through the efforts of the Liberal Party government under Prime Minister Robert Menzies, not through Labor initiatives after Gough Whitlam's election in 1972, as Abbott's framing suggests.[1] Menzies' government formally abolished the policy through the 1966 Migration Act, with Menzies himself declaring in 1963 that "what we need is for every man of a particular race or creed to keep his own quality but add it to the qualities of all the other people in the community."[1] Historian David Kemp, a principal chronicler of the Menzies era, has confirmed that Menzies and his ministers "did most of the hard work in its abolition."[1]
The historical record further complicates Abbott's narrative. Labor leader Arthur Calwell remained an advocate of the White Australia Policy until 1967, well after the Liberal government had begun dismantling it.[1] Subsequently, Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser embraced multiculturalism as an opposition leader in 1975 and advanced it during his tenure as Prime Minister, including through the establishment of the Special Broadcasting Service.[1] Abbott's recent assertion that "multiculturalism has failed" and "diversity is not our strength" thus stands in direct contradiction to positions held by his own party's leaders across decades.[1]