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Julian Burnside Oration: Fear is the great threat to multiculturalism in Australia
Last night, the human rights lawyer Julian Burnside QC gave the annual Walter Lipmann Oration at the Melbourne Town Hall presented by the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria.
- Julian Burnside
- Daily Review
His speech is reproduced in its entirety below.
In it, Burnside charts Australia’s inconsistent, if not volatile, approach to multiculturalism and how the John Howard Tampa affair has shaped the last 17 sorry years of our treatment of refugees.
He argues that the Tampa episode, coupled with the terror attack of 9/11 revived an ancient fear in Australia that our hold on this country is insecure.
He cites 20th…