This summer, Australians of all backgrounds and ethnicities must ask themselves whether the great Australian dream of multiculturalism has failed. And if it has, what is to be done?

For decades, politicians from all sides have reassured us that a constant influx of people from across the globe was all upside and no downside. Immigration, we were told, not only enriched us economically but also culturally. To a large extent, this was perceived to be true, and as white-bread Australia morphed into ciabatta, pita and bao bun Australia, we saw little reason to doubt that this would continue.

Alas, not all cultures are the same, and more importantly, not all cultures accept the fundamental condition of any successful large-scale immigration program: assimilation. Indeed, thanks to Whitlam-era Labor, terms like ‘new Australians’ and ‘integration’ were deemed ‘racist’.

Certainly, there were those like John Howard who warned of inherent risks in a strategy of thoughtless immigration, not to mention illegal immigration. ‘We will decide who comes into this country and the circumstances in which they come,’ was a great slogan and formula, although the specific identity of ‘we’ was never spelt out. Was ‘we’ the bureaucrats? The politicians? The electorate? Clearly not the latter, because, despite polls showing the public is sceptical about excessive inflows of migrants, immigration numbers remain at record highs. The simple truth is that the boffins love high immigration because it makes our economic numbers look good, disguising the fact that as a nation we are falling rapidly behind many of our peers.

But now the cracks are really starting to show. Canberra has for decades tipped vast quantities of foreigners into our major cities whilst the states have ignored the long-term ramifications. This has led to a chronic shortfall in services, an appalling lack of housing and other infrastructure, and a marked decline in per capita GDP.  But that’s not the worst of it. Not by a long stretch.

Over the past fourteen months Australians have seen what happens when one of those ‘multi’ cultures refuses to ‘assimilate’ and, more importantly, refuses to tolerate another one of those ‘multi’ cultures.

So-called ethnic rivalries have always lurked in the background of certain groups in Australia, but by and large, migrants have left the worst of their hatreds and bigotries behind, at least on the surface.

Not any more. The intolerance of many Muslims toward Jews has spilled out into open, virulent anti-Semitism. That this is clearly co-ordinated, well-organised and well-funded from overseas became clear when, within hours of the rapes, murders, beheadings and kidnappings of 7 October (and long before even the faintest hint of retaliation from Israel) angry crowds magically appeared, brandishing pristine Palestinian flags, causing mayhem on the steps of the Opera House where a commemoration to the murdered Israelis was supposed to be taking place. At that pivotal moment, and to their eternal shame, Australia’s law enforcers in the shape of the NSW Police did absolutely nothing – except arrest a man carrying an Israeli flag! Meanwhile, with impunity, radical Islamic leaders in an area that boasts a 46-per-cent Muslim population, Sydney’s Greenacre, literally celebrated the evil Hamas atrocities as a moment of ‘joy’ and ‘elation’.

Ever since, flashes of Jew-hatred have erupted across this nation like spotfires heralding a bushfire; on street ‘protests’, on campuses and now in attacks on cars and synagogues.

In such circumstances, a true national leader and statesman would have put the priorities of maintaining community cohesion front and centre before all other considerations, particularly grubby electoral number-crunching. This would have required the Prime Minister and other ministers to avoid any actions likely to either provoke or encourage further aggression. Other than platitudinous condemnations of anti-Semitism, nearly every utterance and action undertaken by this government since 7 October, 2023, has fanned the flames of division and intolerance that fuel anti-Semitism; and in doing so have met the approval and aided the agenda of those antipathetic towards Jews. Repeatedly, Foreign Minister Wong has taken actions on the international stage which only serve to encourage those who wish to see the end of Israel in its current form, and overturned long-established bipartisanship in the process. There are no words to adequately describe her performance, but reprehensible, reckless and shameful are a start. At the very heart of Labor’s sickness is the vile ideology of moral equivalence, where the likes of Chris Bowen insist on equating anti-Semitism with so-called ‘Islamophobia’. The contrast between Labor and the Coalition, who have committed to charging and/or deporting all those guilty of anti-Semitic attacks (even retrospectively), could not be clearer.

This Christmas, Australians should ask themselves how much longer or to what degree they are prepared to accept the importation of foreign hatreds and Islamic-inspired intolerances in the name of ‘economically beneficial’ multiculturalism, for that, alas, would appear to be the trade-off.