My brown skin has to crawl whenever “Australian values” enter the political conversation. I had always thought they were supposed to mean fairness, decency, and a fair go for all. But when the term is politicised, it becomes harder to define. All the rhetoric turns the mind to simple lines that we all recognise from ads and films – from somewhere in the background of what we think this country is. Like Dennis Denuto says in The Castle, “it’s the vibe of the thing.” But for me, that vibe has always felt just slightly out of reach.
I remember being in history class in Year 8 when Pauline Hanson gave her maiden speech in which she said that Australia was in danger of being “swamped by Asians”. A class discussion ensued, and it was the first time I realised some of my friends held racist views but didn’t quite apply them to me. I was in the room, but somehow not in the category. It was confusing but also clarifying. Whatever “Australian values” were, I had just learnt they could stretch to include me, or snap back to exclude me, depending on who was speaking.
On April 14, Liberal Party leader Angus Taylor announced a migration plan, wrapped up as all about “Australian values”. The term is being massaged to warrant harder entry criteria for people from countries whose “values” aren’t Australian. So far, however, there’s been no official criteria set forth except the Australian Values Statement, which leaves a lot of room for interpretation. The Coalition’s plan will, if ever enacted, effectively give them a blank cheque when it comes to visa rejection criteria.
Angus Taylor tries to veil his move as simply about values, but the fact that Pauline Hanson is furious makes it obvious what’s going on. Her outrage takes it out of the realm of anything subtle. It’s like she’s saying, “That’s not a knife, this is a knife”, because she’s claiming to be the OG. In other words, whatever he’s doing, she recognises it immediately. And that tells me everything I need to know.
I’m Sri Lankan Tamil, often read as Indian, and that generalisation is exactly what happens when values are politicised: distinct identities are collapsed into one hazy group – and that group is pressured to assimilate. But there is a difference between assimilation and integration, and it matters. Multiculturalism asks for integration. It asks that I take part in Australian life without having to sand down the parts of myself that come from my heritage. Assimilation asks for something else. It asks me to become less myself in order to be palatable. That is what unsettles me about Australian values when they are framed as a test. I start to wonder whether I am being invited to belong, or being told to become more like whoever is doing the measuring.
And that worry isn’t just abstract, it’s lived. My parents, when they were working, would code-switch, softening their Sri Lankan accents to fit white workplaces. And I’ll never forget the feeling in that classroom. It made me question where I sat in the Australian landscape. It was like being asked, “Where the bloody hell are you?” but never getting a clear answer.
Values, at least the ones we claim to hold dear: fairness, respect, a fair go – aren’t supposed to need policing. They are supposed to be lived, demonstrated, and felt. The moment they become a checklist, or a condition, or something that can be withheld, they start to shift. They stop being shared and start being controlled. And when that happens, it raises a deeper question for me: not just who is being asked to prove their values, but who is doing the judging in the first place.
It’s not just me reading it this way. Mine isn’t the only brown skin that crawls. Angus Taylor is talking about us, or rather them. And even in the political response, you can feel it – this tug of war between an “ideal Australia” and the one that’s lived. Hanson’s outrage, Taylor’s deflection – it’s all about who gets to be counted as Australian. Which is absurd, given the changing demographic of our country. But then, that’s the crux of the issue.
Talking about race is too on the nose, so let’s talk about values.
Denise Sivasubramaniam is a Sydney-based writer exploring cultural diversity, identity and mental health. She publishes essays on her Substack, Notes from the In-Between.
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Denise Sivasubramaniam is a Sydney-based writer exploring cultural diversity, identity, and mental health. She publishes essays on her Substack, Notes from the In-Between.From our partners
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