The Greens on multiculturalism

HenryBG said :

The official language in this country is English. If you choose to live in this country, learn English.

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I’m afraid you’re wrong, Henry BG. Australia doesn’t have an official language.

Diggety said :

– $500,000 for a cultural understanding grants program to encourage understanding and cooperation between people of different religions and cultural backgrounds, and to help address vilification and discrimination on the basis of race and religion.

So all the Jew/Israeli hating legislation you guys wanted to bring in was just a laugh?

Not since Pauline Hanson has any political party been so disgustingly racist, but no time in my life has a political party come so dangerously close to achieving their ethnic segregation policy since, well – you know who…

I don’t really see that there’s much not to hate about Israel, and framing that as anti-semitism or an attack on Jewish people as a whole is intellectually dishonest on your part. I mean seriously, Israel has displaced and continues to displace countless thousands of people from their homeland (irony much?) using religious doctrine to do so, but because they’re considered a “Western” nation and have U.S support they’re seen as righteous underdogs instead of religious extremists. There are many Jews who themselves are disgusted by the state of Israel and it’s behaviour on the global stage.

Not to mention the fact that the Mossad illegally stole and used Australian passports in covert operations, potentially endangering the lives of the people whose identities they assumed. Israel is not a country I think we should be supporting or associated with as a nation,

The abhorrent treatment of the Jewish race during the 2nd World War and preceding centuries is deplorable, but it doesn’t justify the actions of the Israeli state today, I’m really curious as to how you can defend such a country.

Diggety said :

– $500,000 for a cultural understanding grants program to encourage understanding and cooperation between people of different religions and cultural backgrounds, and to help address vilification and discrimination on the basis of race and religion.

So all the Jew/Israeli hating legislation you guys wanted to bring in was just a laugh?

Not since Pauline Hanson has any political party been so disgustingly racist, but no time in my life has a political party come so dangerously close to achieving their ethnic segregation policy since, well – you know who…

“Behead those who believe in the freedom to make and share books, movies and cartoons” would seem to be the most extreme form of vilification in need of addressing.
Do the Greens address it?

– $500,000 for a cultural understanding grants program to encourage understanding and cooperation between people of different religions and cultural backgrounds, and to help address vilification and discrimination on the basis of race and religion.

So all the Jew/Israeli hating legislation you guys wanted to bring in was just a laugh?

Not since Pauline Hanson has any political party been so disgustingly racist, but no time in my life has a political party come so dangerously close to achieving their ethnic segregation policy since, well – you know who…

Duffbowl said :

HenryBG said :

As The Ratepayer expected to fund the Greens’ combination of ideological stupidity and gravy train, you can rest assured I will not be voting Green.

Leave it out, Henry. Reading back through your posts, anyone with half a brain could see that you’re about as likely to vote for the Greens as Tom Metzger is of voting for Obama.

I used to always vote Greens.

Bob Brown was the voice of commonsense.

Unfortunately The Greens have turned out to be just like the Democrats – a one-man-band. Having lost Bob Brown, we’re seeing a bunch of ego-driven intellectual pygmies using the Party to promote the mindless ideologies they acquired at Uni.

They should back away from the distracting fringe-nonsense and get back to hammering the point home that Australia needs to invest substantial time and money in a reform its energy policies and industries with an eye on security and sustainability.

Tony Abbott has promised to scrap the Marine Reserves. To me, this is a shocking and far worse threat of environmental vandalism than the proposed Franklin dam could ever have been, but do you hear ‘boo’ out of the Greens about it?

NoAddedMSG said :

HenryBG said :

The official language in this country is English. If you choose to live in this country, learn English.

I don’t think I have ever come accross a non-english speaking migrant who is refusing to learn english. What I have however come accross are migrants with very low levels of english proficiency, who are trying hard to learn but finding it tough for very understandable reasons. In the meantime they have to live in the real world and can’t lock themselves away for two years while they study, so they still have to deal with government services. Those people need translator services.

WHy is the taxpayer funding those services?

It’s not the taxpayer’s problem. These immigrants should have attended to their education before moving to an english-speaking country. The UK has recently massively tightened-up their policy on requiring immigrants to learn english before getting a visa – how long do we here stay in denial of this issue before Australia follows suit?

Just heard an Afghani boat-arrival on 2cn having a huge whinge because the govt. won’t let him import all his relatives no-questions-asked.
He’s been in the country 11 years and his english was execrable. He’s obviously never going to learn it, and people like the Greens are going to continue to increase *our* taxes to pay for the consequences.

My position is this:
– personal responsibility
– government should butt out a great many things
– my taxes should go down

The problem with government is that it is mostly just an end in itself: half of what the government does is dreaming up new ways to make government bigger.
And if laws were written properly, we wouldn’t have half as many lawyers in our society.

And sorry Jethro – I quite liked, “stupid old person who listens to Alan Jones” so I shouldn’t have confused you with the “bigot” PC-indoctrinee.

bigfeet said :

Matt_Watts said :

Not getting into the pros and cons of the Greens’ policy, but seriously – I must make a comment on the claim Australia doesn’t have English as the official language….

The Greens’ policies aside, of course English is our bloody official language otherwise we wouldn’t demand it as a requirement in the public service, require it be taught in schools or offer free English lessons to new settlers.

Please point me to the piece of legislation that makes it Australia’s ‘official language’, or any legislation in Australia that defines Australia’s ‘official language’.

There is a big difference between something being a de-facto language, or the language supported by government, and an ‘official language’.

It might just be semantics but semantics are very important when it comes to legislation. I am worried that someone who is vying to be a Legislator fails to grasp this.

Actually, I was the one to point out it was a matter of regulation. Cheers.

HenryBG said :

I notice, for example, Jethro is pleasing his masters through throwing in the word, “bigot”.

The post that included the word “bigot” was by m@, not Jethro. As they say, never let the truth get in the way of a good story, Henry.

HenryBG said :

banco said :

CaseyRyback said :

HenryBG said :

The official language in this country is English. If you choose to live in this country, learn English.

Just had to think of those Australians that retire in Thailand / Indonesia / elsewhere in Asia and don’t bother learning the official languages there.

Go to those countries and demand Government funded interpreters. Good luck with that.

It’s a puzzle – what was Casey thinking? What was Casey’s point?

I guess that’s the problem with public education these days – never mind facts and logic, they’re just trained to regurgitate politically-correct leftie nonsense.

I notice, for example, Jethro is pleasing his masters through throwing in the word, “bigot”.

Please point to where I said the word bigot in this thread.

HenryBG said :

As The Ratepayer expected to fund the Greens’ combination of ideological stupidity and gravy train, you can rest assured I will not be voting Green.

Leave it out, Henry. Reading back through your posts, anyone with half a brain could see that you’re about as likely to vote for the Greens as Tom Metzger is of voting for Obama.

HenryBG said :

The official language in this country is English. If you choose to live in this country, learn English.

I don’t think I have ever come accross a non-english speaking migrant who is refusing to learn english. What I have however come accross are migrants with very low levels of english proficiency, who are trying hard to learn but finding it tough for very understandable reasons. In the meantime they have to live in the real world and can’t lock themselves away for two years while they study, so they still have to deal with government services. Those people need translator services.

Matt_Watts said :

Not getting into the pros and cons of the Greens’ policy, but seriously – I must make a comment on the claim Australia doesn’t have English as the official language….

The Greens’ policies aside, of course English is our bloody official language otherwise we wouldn’t demand it as a requirement in the public service, require it be taught in schools or offer free English lessons to new settlers.

Please point me to the piece of legislation that makes it Australia’s ‘official language’, or any legislation in Australia that defines Australia’s ‘official language’.

There is a big difference between something being a de-facto language, or the language supported by government, and an ‘official language’.

It might just be semantics but semantics are very important when it comes to legislation. I am worried that someone who is vying to be a Legislator fails to grasp this.

banco said :

CaseyRyback said :

HenryBG said :

The official language in this country is English. If you choose to live in this country, learn English.

Just had to think of those Australians that retire in Thailand / Indonesia / elsewhere in Asia and don’t bother learning the official languages there.

Go to those countries and demand Government funded interpreters. Good luck with that.

It’s a puzzle – what was Casey thinking? What was Casey’s point?

I guess that’s the problem with public education these days – never mind facts and logic, they’re just trained to regurgitate politically-correct leftie nonsense.

I notice, for example, Jethro is pleasing his masters through throwing in the word, “bigot”.

Jethro said :

HenryBG said :

What *is* the “importance” of “culturally and linguistically diverse groups”, anyway? Do they feed the homeless? Do they create jobs? Do they help combat crime? ? ? ?

Yes to the last two questions. Australian companies that have foreign clients often seek bilingual people to work for them. Furthermore, having large expat communities in Australia can only help build economic ties with other countries; Australia’s large Chinese-Australian community is certainly an economic benefit to us. As far as crime fighting goes, organisations like the AFP, ASIO and ASIS need and value people who can speak other languages.

I would also add that having a culturally diverse country enriches us in other ways too. Things like the multicultural festival add to the vibrancy of this city.
.

You don’t need waffle like “culturally and linguistically diverse groups” in order to provide required languages for business, you just need education and skilled migration.

And I’m pretty sure the Greens aren’t still flogging multiculturalism with the benefits it might provide to ASIO in mind.

The fact is Multiculturalism was a nonsense that has now been well and truly laid to rest in those few places where it was foolishly embraced.
As usual, Australia is several years behind the rest of the world in recognising that multiculturalism is an abject failure of an idea, with nobody more behind than the thoughtless, dopey lefties obsessed with sucking ever more money out of the taxpayer.

Matt_Watts said :

johnboy said :

The unifying aspect in most places in india, china, and huge swathes of asia/pac is english.

doesn’t make it official.

Damn lucky for us born as native speakers though.

Yep. And a number of other languages are accommodated within those countries.

Sure, it’s true, English is our de facto national language as opposed to an official one, yet English is supported through government programmes. Matter of regulation.

And, just to clarify, I reckon a bloody official language is just the same as a de fact national language when one looks at practicalities. Cheers.

johnboy said :

The unifying aspect in most places in india, china, and huge swathes of asia/pac is english.

doesn’t make it official.

Damn lucky for us born as native speakers though.

I was born dribbling and making gurgling noises. English is my second language.

johnboy said :

The unifying aspect in most places in india, china, and huge swathes of asia/pac is english.

doesn’t make it official.

Damn lucky for us born as native speakers though.

Yep. And a number of other languages are accommodated within those countries.

Sure, it’s true, English is our de facto national language as opposed to an official one, yet English is supported through government programmes. Matter of regulation.

Not getting into the pros and cons of the Greens’ policy, but seriously – I must make a comment on the claim Australia doesn’t have English as the official language.

That is, if you telephone a translator (which is perfectly fine), it’s a “non-English language” to English, not “any language” to “another language”. Not often you hear of some Farsi feller trying to communicate with a Mandarin-speaking migration agent directly.

Grow up peeps. The Greens’ policies aside, of course English is our bloody official language otherwise we wouldn’t demand it as a requirement in the public service, require it be taught in schools or offer free English lessons to new settlers.

Sure, it’s great many people speak multiple languages yet, in most workplaces, the unifying aspect is that that they all speak English. This is important when it comes to social inclusion and workplace safety, etc.

And, finally, I believe Australians heading overseas should try to learn the local dialect to a greater extent.

CaseyRyback said :

HenryBG said :

The official language in this country is English. If you choose to live in this country, learn English.

Just had to think of those Australians that retire in Thailand / Indonesia / elsewhere in Asia and don’t bother learning the official languages there.

Go to those countries and demand Government funded interpreters. Good luck with that.

Regarding the $500K, I’m all in favour of increasing understanding and cooperation between people of diverse backgrounds, but I’d really like some clarification on what they have in mind that will “address” vilification and discrimination based on race and religion. I thought we had plenty of legal measures in place to deal with that sort of thing already.

Also, maybe I’m becoming dazed by all the election waffle, but there seems to be something a little Orwellian about the way that is phrased.

HenryBG said :

What *is* the “importance” of “culturally and linguistically diverse groups”, anyway?

The above posts aside, there’s also their value as decoys to draw out the closet bigots…

HenryBG said :

What *is* the “importance” of “culturally and linguistically diverse groups”, anyway? Do they feed the homeless? Do they create jobs? Do they help combat crime? ? ? ?

Yes to the last two questions. Australian companies that have foreign clients often seek bilingual people to work for them. Furthermore, having large expat communities in Australia can only help build economic ties with other countries; Australia’s large Chinese-Australian community is certainly an economic benefit to us. As far as crime fighting goes, organisations like the AFP, ASIO and ASIS need and value people who can speak other languages.

I would also add that having a culturally diverse country enriches us in other ways too. Things like the multicultural festival add to the vibrancy of this city.

You sound like a stupid old person who listens to too much Allan Jones.

HenryBG said :

bigfeet said :

HenryBG said :

The official language in this country is English. .

Actually Australia has no ‘official language’.

Weirdly, every Australian government official I have ever dealt with has used English.

The person in the desk next to me speaks Romanian, the guy near me speaks some form of Indian, a friend at work speaks Swahili, another Indonseian, another German and another Iranian. all Government officials. I’m sure there are more languages in the department
Our deparment also offers services in languages other than English

HenryBG said :

The official language in this country is English. If you choose to live in this country, learn English.

Just had to think of those Australians that retire in Thailand / Indonesia / elsewhere in Asia and don’t bother learning the official languages there.

HenryBG said :

bigfeet said :

Weirdly, every Australian government official I have ever dealt with has used English.

That would be because you chose to converse in English. If you turned up and all you spoke was Tetum then the official would find a translator for you.

HenryBG said :

bigfeet said :

HenryBG said :

The official language in this country is English. .

Actually Australia has no ‘official language’.

Weirdly, every Australian government official I have ever dealt with has used English.

That makes it the official language? Why wouldnt they speak English if thats what you speak?You can do better

bigfeet said :

HenryBG said :

The official language in this country is English. .

Actually Australia has no ‘official language’.

Weirdly, every Australian government official I have ever dealt with has used English.

HenryBG said :

The official language in this country is English. .

Actually Australia has no ‘official language’.

The official language in this country is English. If you choose to live in this country, learn English.

$500,000 to teach muslims to not threaten to behead those that disagree with them sounds good though.

What *is* the “importance” of “culturally and linguistically diverse groups”, anyway? Do they feed the homeless? Do they create jobs? Do they help combat crime? ? ? ?

Meanwhile, the Greens propose even *less* funding for non-government school students, who cost the government on average just 23% of what a government school student costs me, The Ratepayer.
In other words they would like education costs to increase. At my expense, of course.

And there I was thinking the Greens were the Party dedicated to the environment….

As The Ratepayer expected to fund the Greens’ combination of ideological stupidity and gravy train, you can rest assured I will not be voting Green.