Australia’s race discrimination commissioner, Tim Soutphommasane, says the high no vote in western Sydney in last week’s historic same-sex marriage postal survey reflects religious observance rather than ethnicity, and he has warned against an outbreak of crass, cultural stereotyping.
Soutphommasane used a speech at the University of Western Sydney to issue a pointed warning against adopting “easy narratives” devoid of evidence about the behaviour or inclinations of particular ethnic groups in Australia.
“In a world that many describe as post-truth or post-factual, our social cohesion is not always well served by jumping to conclusions,” he said.
“Once-appealing narratives take hold, they can help fuel stereotypes about others – and these can be difficult to shake off. Sometimes this is because they may conveniently help to confirm cultural hierarchies in our society.”
Soutphommasane said a narrative has sprung up since the postal survey which centres on ethnic minorities or multicultural communities being intrinsically hostile towards same-sex marriage, and to the LGBTI community at large.
He said while some ethnic communities hold to the view that marriage is between a man and a woman, that view is shaped often by religious or cultural traditions.
The race commissioner said a more clear-eyed examination of the postal survey data suggests religiosity, or religious observance, was a more significant factor for no voters – a fact well understood by the no campaign, which targeted messages to a range of communities in Sydney’s west.
Soutphommasane said if you look at the voting trends outside western Sydney, a more mixed picture emerges – a picture where seats with populations of more than 40% born overseas overwhelmingly voted yes.
He pointed out that the most multicultural electorates in New South Wales and Victoria recorded high yes votes – seats like Sydney, Grayndler, Kingsford Smith, Bradfield, Batman, Wills, Gellibrand and Chisholm.
“To suggest that an overwhelming majority of multicultural communities voted no – and did so out of some essential cultural hostility against gays and lesbians – is to entertain something that comes close to an unkind stereotype,” the race commissioner said.
He said the 38% national no vote included people from a range of backgrounds “yet judging from some commentary, you’d be mistaken to think that vote came almost exclusively from migrant and ethnic communities”.
Soutphommasane pointed to a double standard in some of the public commentary, where people from “multicultural backgrounds are held to a standard that isn’t necessarily applied to others”.
He said there is an element where a no vote is acceptable from someone of the majority, but unacceptable if the position is held by a minority.
“There is that notion that migrants are somehow ungrateful to Australia in not extending to others the kind of respect and tolerance that they demand themselves,” he said . “How interesting that this judgment doesn’t appear to have been formed about others who may have voted no”.
Soutphommasane said false narratives around racism stoke populist narratives which have the potential to erode social cohesion and racial harmony in a multicultural society.
“Such challenges have always been present for our multiculturalism,” he said. “There can never be any guarantee against such challenges”.
“The best defence of our cohesion and harmony, as ever, is our vigilance and our virtue. We must be prepared to defend liberal values of equality, tolerance and non-discrimination.
“And it is not enough for our society merely to be non-racist; it must be resolutely anti-racist.”
