What is Australia's multicultural policy?

Australia's multicultural policy is the official framework for managing the country's cultural and linguistic diversity, based on the principle that migrants can maintain their cultural heritage while becoming Australians. The policy operates through settlement services, interpreter and translation services, anti-discrimination law, public broadcasting in many languages, community language schools, and the broader civic culture of Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of Country.

Several elements make up the current policy. The Australian Multicultural Framework, periodically updated since the 1989 National Agenda for a Multicultural Australia, sets out the principles of respect for cultural diversity, equality of opportunity, civic participation, and social cohesion. The federal Department of Home Affairs delivers settlement services through the Settlement Engagement and Transition Support (SETS) programme. Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS) National provides interpreters in more than 160 languages.

Major institutional elements include the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS, founded 1980) broadcasting in more than 60 languages, the Adult Migrant English Programme (AMEP) providing free English instruction, community language schools teaching more than 90 languages, anti-discrimination laws (particularly the Racial Discrimination Act 1975), the Multicultural Affairs Commissioner role, the Australian Human Rights Commission's Race Discrimination Commissioner role, Harmony Week each March, and the various religious and cultural festivals increasingly part of the national calendar.

The policy has been developed across successive governments. The Whitlam Labor government from 1972 introduced multiculturalism as the explicit settlement framework. The Fraser Coalition government and the Galbally Report of 1978 developed it. The Hawke and Keating Labor governments maintained and expanded the policy. The Howard Coalition government emphasised civic values within the framework. Successive Labor and Coalition governments have issued multicultural policy statements, with the most recent updates from the Albanese Labor government from 2022 onwards focusing on social cohesion. About 30 per cent of Australians today were born overseas, almost half have a parent born overseas, and more than 270 ancestries and 300 languages are represented, making Australia one of the most diverse societies in the developed world. The October 2023 anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents have produced renewed federal responses, including the Special Envoy for Social Cohesion and expanded anti-discrimination reforms in 2024.