One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has finally clarified what she means by 'monoculturalism,' a term she's been tossing around like a boomerang that keeps hitting Australians in the face. According to Hanson, the essential features of Australian monoculture include 'a fair go, tolerance, secular democracy, freedom of speech and religion, and the rule of law' - plus Paul Hogan and Norman Gunston. Yes, that Norman Gunston. She insists there's 'nothing remotely exclusionary' about this vision, which apparently welcomes 'Greek salad, Italian pasta, Chinese stir fry, and Indian curry' as long as everyone agrees that the real cultural touchstones are a couple of blokes from the '70s and '80s.
Meanwhile, Liberal MP Julian Leeser says he doesn't understand what Hanson means by 'monocultural' Australia, because we have 'a range of different cultures here, but we are united by values.' He elaborated that those values include 'commitment to democracy, to the rule of law, to the equality of men and women' - basically, the stuff you'd find in a civics textbook, plus an implicit endorsement of diverse potluck dinners.
Multicultural affairs minister Anne Aly wasn't buying Hanson's pitch, accusing her of using the Socceroos to make her views 'more palatable.' 'Under Pauline Hanson's monoculturalism, there would be no soccer, there'd be no Socceroos,' Aly said, apparently forgetting that soccer is actually pretty popular among monoculturalists too.
In other news, South Australia detected its first confirmed case of the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain in a migratory petrel, which probably wasn't thinking about monoculturalism when it caught the virus. The federal agriculture minister Julie Collins confirmed the case, while WA reported a third suspected case in a seabird near Quindalup. Papua New Guinea, perhaps feeling that Australian poultry isn't worth the risk, has suspended imports of Australian chicken and eggs. Australia's chief veterinary officer Dr Beth Cookson says investigations are ongoing to determine if the cases are linked, but early advice suggests the birds were 'likely to be separate inductions' - which is veterinary speak for 'they didn't catch it from each other.'
Queensland's government has decided that if you can't measure public trust in police, you should just stop trying. The state's service delivery statements reveal that only 27.1% of people feel safe on public transport, 61% feel confident reporting domestic violence, and a mere 53.2% believe police treat people fairly. Rather than address these numbers, the state has discontinued ten metrics because federal and state police don't want to pay for the survey anymore. Greens MP Michael Berkman noted that 'public confidence to report domestic and family violence to police has fallen to the lowest rate since the measure was introduced - and Crisafulli's solution is to just stop asking.' It's a bold strategy, Cotton.
Queensland treasurer David Janetzki called out Origin Energy for 'not doing the right thing' by raising power prices despite the Australian Energy Regulator slashing the default market offer by 7.2% for households. Origin apparently sent letters to customers suggesting prices would go up 'significantly,' which is the energy company equivalent of saying 'we heard you like higher bills, so we put higher bills in your bills.'
And in a move that surprised absolutely no one, Nine Entertainment executives are meeting to discuss the future of Karl Stefanovic after the Today show co-host published and then quickly deleted an interview with UK far-right activist Tommy Robinson. It's the media equivalent of 'oops, I accidentally invited a neo-Nazi to brunch - my bad.'