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July 1, 2026 — 5:00am
When was the last time you felt proud to be an Australian? Socceroos and sporting triumphs aside, do you get a queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach when asked about national pride, almost as though love for your country is something to be ashamed of?
For me, the P word, patriotism, conjures up images of far-right thugs with Southern Cross tatts marching on parliament or rioting at Cronulla. I don’t want to be associated with that, so I mustn’t be very patriotic. All of this happens on an instinctive level without much input from my rational brain. At some point, I’ve imbibed the idea that national pride is bad without ever giving the assumptions underpinning this much thought.
The rise of One Nation and the populist right has, however, got me thinking about the virtues of patriotism. All the teeth-gnashing over whatever “monoculture” means and Angus Taylor’s dithering incoherence in response to it only plays into Pauline Hanson’s hands.
We’re spending all this time talking about One Nation and its views on multiculturalism. Why are we leaving it to Hanson to determine the parameters of our conversation about Australia’s national identity?
There is so much to be proud of about modern Australia. Our institutions aren’t perfect, but there are few countries in the world that could claim to be safer, more prosperous and better functioning than Australia. We have a healthy democracy, the rule of law and an independent judiciary. While we can continue to improve our human rights situation, especially when it comes to prisons, detention centres and Indigenous communities, Australians enjoy freedom of speech, association, religion and conscience. We are home to the oldest continuous civilisation. Our continent is breathtakingly beautiful with fauna and landscapes not found anywhere else in the world.
Ignore the dark and garbled nonsense coming from Hanson and her supporters. We are one of the most multicultural countries on the planet, and largely do a good job of making it work. We mix, we fuse, we intermarry, we celebrate each other’s festivals and adopt aspects of each other’s culture. In contrast to parts of Europe and North America, we seem to have built a more resilient multicultural society less prone to intergroup violence or tensions.
Of course, there is nothing more Australian than taking all of this for granted, but as many of our migrant populations understand well, we are actually far freer and better off in Australia than anywhere else in the world. Each of us should feel no small measure of pride in this. Australia isn’t perfect, but its success is our collective achievement.
Earlier this year Anthony Albanese briefly floated the idea of “progressive patriotism”, perhaps as a more hopeful counterpoint to the darker, racially charged version promoted by Hanson and her supporters. Unfortunately, like so much in politics, progressive patriotism was never more than a thought bubble. The spin cycle moved on, and no attempt was made to fashion it into something more meaningful. However, it’s possible Albanese was inadvertently onto something. Why shouldn’t patriotism be progressive? Just as we shouldn’t allow One Nation to define multiculturalism, we must wrest the narrative of pride in our country away from the domain of the far right.
But it’s not only One Nation supporters staking a claim to patriotism. Their narrative is also bolstered by the far left, for whom “the colony” of “so-called” Australia has become a dirty word infused with guilt and, born as we were out of atrocities committed against our First Peoples, renders our nation forever irredeemable as a place worth living in and fighting for.
To such people, the fact that far-right “reclaim Australia” marchers and the like have misappropriated national symbols, including the Australian flag, to further their cause is proof that patriotism itself has become irrevocably sullied with the ugly politics of racial hierarchy. In this the narratives of far left and far right reinforce each other.
If the rise of Hansonism has taught us anything it is that, in this age of populist rage, viral memes will win over reasoned policy debate every time. Politics-as-usual doesn’t work on Hanson. As both Taylor and Albanese have discovered, attacking One Nation’s policies, or lack thereof, hasn’t arrested the growth in her support. Nor has attacking Hanson herself, whose Teflon-like appeal transfigures criticism into proof that the system is stacked against her.
Hanson is offering her followers a vision rooted not in policy but ideology. It may be predicated on a strange, 1950s version of Australia in which women lacked access to abortion and parental leave and multiculturalism meant putting curry sauce on the chips in Pauline’s fish and chip shop. It may be more certain about what it opposes (Muslims, renewables, subsidised childcare) than what it actually has to offer. But Hanson’s supporters will tell you, at least Pauline stands for something. The rest of them? They stand for big business, their union mates, or power, prestige and self-enrichment. Drain the swamp!
If the major parties want to take on Hanson, they must battle vibes with vibes. One Nation’s opponents must offer an alternative ideological narrative.
Why shouldn’t that narrative be rooted in patriotism? What other collective mythology can bind together our melting pot of cultures, religions and languages other than love for our country?
We are incredibly fortunate to belong to Australia. It’s time we reimagine patriotism into something that strengthens our flourishing multicultural society, rather than threatens it.
Kylie Moore-Gilbert is a research fellow in security studies at Macquarie University and a regular columnist.
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