I won't say it is a grander hotel than ours, but the conference certainly has a grander name. It is, we are advised, part of Australia's national contribution to the world-wide celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations, and a small part of our contribution to the International Year of Tolerance. I mean Senator Bolkus launched the Conference last Thursday at a breakfast The Cultural Diversity breakfast. He was its keynote speaker. The drift is not what you might imagine.
Caution is called for.
New Diversity, it soon becomes clear, encourages all kinds of Diversity except Diversity of opinion. This is what seems to have happened. Distortion of the ideals of multiculturalism has brought the very word into some disrepute. It always was, for the ordinary person, a bit of a turn-off. Some politicians can't spell it.