Son Of Immigrant Says Multiculturalism Has Failed

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact

The unsinkable Barnaby Joyce has declared multiculturalism has largely failed and Australia should become a 'monoculture' before it's too late.

Speaking after his deputy Pauline Hanson's address to the National Press Club on Wednesday, Joyce echoed the sentiments.

"It proves that she has the strength to say the bleeding obvious. You can’t have multiculturalism; you have to have Australian guardrails. If you believe all cultures are in equivalence, then I suppose if you have the Inca culture here where they said we’ve got to chop your head off … well, that’s a culture," Joyce told the ABC's witch hunting 730 Report.

"If you're not from here, it might be time for you to go home."

The Member for New England famously discovered that he was a New Zealander, though his Kiwi-born father, during the Citizenship Crisis which saw a number of politicians get booted from parliament for being dual citizens, which our constitution says is not on.

Joyce spoke briefly to The Advocate this morning via wireless telephone, where he attempted to walk back some of the claims he and Pauline made earlier in the week.

"Well, look, as the son of an immigrant, obviously, we need to take a look at what actually constitutes an immigrant," he said.

"We welcome a hundred thousand British people, tens of thousands of Irish. God knows how many Kiwis come here. I don't think they really count, however. We're talking about multiculturalism here. We share the same culture as many of our Commonwealth brothercousins. Hmm actually, well, you could call America our poison cousin. I wouldn't expect you to understand the concept."

The New Zealand Consulate in Betoota told The Advocate that Joyce's remarks were "deeply offensive" and "untrue".

"New Zealand has it's own culture that is not the same as Australia, any suggestion that there are any similarities is unacceptable," they said.

"If he wants to kick up a din over this, he's certainly found what he's looking for."

More to come.