How Do We Build Social Cohesion?

I don't know about you, but I just want to live in a country where we all get along. Where we solve our problems by talking to each other, where we look out for each other, and where we are all safe and we are all free. Sounds pretty simple. In reality, it's very hard to achieve. 

Just think about how hard it is to get along with your own family members!

For many years now, we in Australia, along with most of the rest of the Western world, have been living under the delusion that we can tolerate limitless difference and diversity without sacrificing social cohesion.

After Bondi, it is absolutely unavoidable that we, as citizens, think long and hard about how we rebuild social cohesion. At the very least, social cohesion has to mean that one group of people, don’t kill other Australians who belong to a different group.

So what has to happen?

First, we need national agreement on, and commitment to, the underlying western, Judaeo-Christian tradition that has been the basis for our social cohesion up to this point.

Second, we need to confidently develop and transmit this tradition to our children and grandchildren.

Third, we need to insist that any migrant into our country takes their place within this tradition. Migrants can and do enrich and develop this tradition, but we cannot tolerate people who wish to replace our tradition with what they have brought with them.

Finally, we need to build a citizen movement that holds our political leaders to account to carry out points 1 to 3.

This may all seem too challenging and difficult for us, but Australia is an amazing country worth preserving. It is worth fighting and winning the battle of ideas so that Australia can continue to be a place where everybody, including and especially the Jewish community, is safe and free. And that it continues to be this way for our children, our grandchildren, and our great-grandchildren.

Mark Leach