Identity politics, enclaves, undermine common values

Hastily-convened citizenship ceremonies around the nation raised suspicions that the federal government was trying to enrol more Labor voters ahead of the forthcoming election.

Organised by the Home Affairs department, the events saw new citizens not only take the citizenship pledge, but also be briefed on how to vote and told about electoral boundaries.

Liberal Senator James Paterson spearheaded criticism of what he called “the reckless politicisation of the citizenship process,” although the government denied any political motivation.

But Paterson was right to raise his concerns. Levels of trust in government are already in free fall and levels of voter turnout are declining — even with our compulsory voting system.

Findings from the Scanlon Foundation’s Mapping Social Cohesion survey also point to diminished social cohesion as well as a weakening sense of Australian national identity.

Rates of volunteering fell by 7 per cent between 2010 and 2019 and the proportion of those who feel a strong connection to our way life fell by 10 per cent between 2018 and 2023.

These worrying trends, indicating an increasingly fragmented society, were brought to the fore by the alarming spike in antisemitism we’ve seen in Australia over the past 15 months.

One factor driving fragmentation is identity politics, which has been exacerbated by subverted multiculturalism, creating enclaves that promote cultures distinct from Australia’s.

But the permanent coexistence of distinct cultural enclaves within the same country, each enjoying equal social status, reduces the idea of citizenship to a mere legal formality.

It has created a ‘culture of repudiation’ that marginalises our inherited national norms and customs, eroding old loyalties and decrying the idea that being ‘Australian’ is important.

All these factors have led to a gradual weakening of the idea that citizenship entails membership of a given nation that is enjoyed in common with others.

If we are to cultivate good citizenship, we need to promote certain standards of behaviour — for while rights and freedoms enjoyed by citizens are crucial — they are not the only factors.

We also need to foster key civic virtues, such us trust, cooperation and tolerance, which are essential for building a society which enjoys high levels of social cohesion and prosperity.

Being a citizen is not just about exercising our rights and entitlements; it is also about the ways in which we conduct ourselves in relation to other members of the community.

Rights matter, but the duties we owe as citizens are of equal — if not more — importance because all the social bonds between us are based on sharing a particular way of life.

We are confronted by a crisis of civic virtue that requires from us a renewed commitment to civics education in our schools and to fostering more community engagement.

But it also requires high standards of political leadership committed to promoting civic virtues as standards to which all Australians must aspire.

Failure to attend to this crisis of civic virtue will not only further weaken the bonds of trust and civility between us, but will undermine the very idea of what is to be an Australian.

Peter Kurti is Director of the Culture, Prosperity & Civil Society program at the Centre for Independent Studies and author of Fractured Loyalties: Australian Citizenship and the Crisis of Civic Virtue.

Photo by Valentin.