The Local Politics of Difference: An Examination of Intercommunal Relations Policy in Australian Local Government

A national survey of multicultural policy reveals that attempts by Australian local government to foster good intercommunal relations between cultural groups are poorly developed. Local government authorities (known as ‘councils’) limited their involvement to supporting festivals and information provision campaigns, often aimed at building Anglo-Celtic tolerance of other groups. Most community relations projects and policies were forms of exotic or assimilatory multiculturalism, rather than radical multiculturalism. Very few had developed policies to confront racism. Even those councils in areas with acknowledged interethnic discord were found to be reticient to intervene in local intercommunal relations. Some Australian councils celebrated and responded to the diversity of their citizenry. However, many failed to recognise heterogeneity and constructed certain minorities as a problematic ‘other’. Good local government practice involves the development of a comprehensive community relations policy. Such policy should be set within the wider context of recasting governance to encourage further involvement of the full range of local citizenry.