Melbourne Event: Reg Watson Honoured
BAC President message
Frank Salter 17 July 2022
Dear BAC Members,
On the 2nd of July in Melbourne, at ESU House, the BAC awarded historian and long-term BAC member Reg Watson the first Alan James BAC Advocacy Award, in recognition of his many years of service to the organisation and to Anglo Australia.
As part of the award, Reg received Life Membership of the BAC. He then presented a fascinating talk on the subject, “Tasmania’s British Heritage”.
Later in the evening, I gave a talk on the subject, “Multiculturalism as a Majority Anglo Strategy”. There followed a lively Q&A.
The event was live streamed. and can now be viewed via our BAC YouTube channel. Please subscribe to the channel, watch and like our videos!
The full event (including the presentation and both lectures) is HERE. My lecture is also available separately, HERE. The texts of the award citation and my talk will be available on the revamped BAC website before long.
Thanks to Margaret Birtley and Robert Furlan for all the work they did arranging the event. Thanks also to Margaret for kindly hosting a gathering for Reg, me and several friends at her home the night before.
Such face-to-face events should happen more often. The BAC’s membership is separated by large distances, so we need to make the effort to meet and converse.
In other developments, Pierce McNamara has posted another enlightening News Review commentary. We plan to augment this soon with a revamped News page on the website.
Want to get involved in Australia’s vibrant multicultural experiment? The Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA) is running a survey on Multiculturalism (which can be found HERE).
I’ve completed the survey and found it interesting and revealing. I recommend BAC members do take the 20 minutes needed to express their points of view.
The survey addresses “multicultural people”, those with “multicultural backgrounds”. They mean non-Anglos, which is an ethnic designation. This is absurd, because “multicultural” and “diverse” only have meaning when applied to the whole society. Australian multiculturalism applies to the contrasts found among the various immigrant and indigenous populations and the majority Anglo population. The survey’s terminology is reminiscent of the 1970s when citizens of non-British background were called “ethnics”, as if Anglos somehow did not possess cultural or ethnic identity.
Anglos should not tolerate being excluded from the multicultural system. After all, an important argument for mass non-Anglo immigration was that it carried the benefits of diversifying the receiving nation. It is contradictory to now claim that Anglos or whites do not contribute to diversity.
Here are some of the questions to be found in the survey.
- Do you consider Australia to be your home?
- How connected do you feel in your neighbourhood?
- Indicate degree of agreement:
- I have experienced some racism in Australia because of my skin colour, ethnic origin or religious belief (
- I have friends and/or family who have experienced racism in Australia
- If you have experienced racism, in what environment did this happen?
- What is the main barrier for you in getting a job or getting the job you want? [Choose one of …] Language, Transport, Discrimination, etc.
- Do you agree with the following statements?
- Australia is a successful multicultural country
- There is enough representation of my cultural /ethnic background in Australian television and media
- I feel safe expressing my culture in Australia
The questionnaire gives the impression that it is not intended for people with British origins or those who have assimilated to them. So please complete the survey and report the facts as you see them. Personal details are not required.