(Please scroll to the end for a PDF attachment of the full statement.)
Official Statement from the CEO of Allies in Colour
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
12 September 2025
The recent public discourse surrounding migration and comments about Indian-Australians has revealed a sickness at the heart of Australian politics. Allies in Colour condemns racism and xenophobia in all its forms, including the recent remarks by Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price that reduce complex human beings to crude political stereotypes.
But to focus solely on one politician is to mistake the symptom for the disease.
This incident is not an aberration. It is the predictable outcome of a political culture that rewards the scapegoating of migrant communities. Our media environment, party structures, and government frameworks have created a marketplace where division pays and solidarity costs.
For too long, migration has been treated as an economic commodity to fuel growth — and an electoral commodity to be weaponised. When politicians of all parties frame demographic change in terms of “vote blocs” and political advantage, they legitimise exactly the kind of rhetoric we have seen this week.
The answer is not another apology, nor another round of outrage. The answer is to change the system that keeps producing these moments.
Allies in Colour calls for a national shift from condemnation to reform. We must:
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Elevate Multicultural Affairs out of the security-focused portfolio of Home Affairs and into the Prime Minister’s Department, reframing multiculturalism as a nation-building priority.
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Legislate transparency requirements for all political claims about migration, forcing debate to be rooted in fact rather than fear.
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Invest in leadership pipelines so that multicultural Australians are policymakers and power-holders, not merely targets of political campaigns.
We stand in solidarity with Indian-Australians — and with every community made vulnerable by opportunistic politics. It is time to build a democracy where dividing people by race or origin is not just condemned, but made politically useless.
ENDS
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