The Naked Bronze Australian will be published in January 2026
First Peoples Identity, Anglo-Saxon Institutional Dominance, and the Future of Australian Multiculturalism. Australia stands as one of the world’s most successful multicultural nations, with 32.3% of its 27.4 million population born overseas (2024). Yet recent events—including the December 2024 Bondi Beach terrorist attack, emergence of far-right extremism, and declining social cohesion scores—reveal persistent tensions in Australia’s integration model and demonstrate that strengthening multiculturalism requires fundamental institutional and conceptual transformation.
Authentic Australian identity is First Peoples in foundation—the values now claimed as distinctly Australian emerge from 60,000+ years of First Peoples adaptation rather than from Anglo-Saxon settlement. Anglo-Saxon institutional frameworks have been deeply embedded in Australian governance through deliberate suppression of First Peoples institutions. Contemporary Australia must address this historical reality whilst navigating between cultural pluralism and the enforcement of core democratic values.
This analysis integrates evidence from history, sociology, economics, political science, and public health, including 2024-2025 data on employment discrimination (UNSW research showing 51-88 percentage point employment gaps for refugees), social cohesion (Scanlon Foundation reporting index decline to 78, lowest since 2007), migration economics (620,000 migrant-owned businesses employing 1.41 million Australians), and radicalization pathways (documented connections between discrimination, marginalization, and extremist recruitment).
Australia has achieved significant multicultural successes—economic contributions of migrants, cultural enrichment, second-generation integration—yet faces substantial challenges including persistent discrimination, skills underutilization, stalled integration for some communities, radicalization among second and third-generation members, and declining social cohesion amid economic pressures and housing crises.
“Deliberate multiculturalism” grounded in clarity about non-negotiable boundaries offers a path forward: commitment to democratic governance, rule of law, prohibition of violence and coercion, alongside genuine accommodation of cultural and religious pluralism. This requires substantial investment in employment support, language training, credential recognition, and community development; institutional transformation to reflect and serve diverse populations equitably; and renewed commitment to First Peoples self-determination through constitutional recognition and treaty negotiations.
The book is organized into five parts examining First Peoples foundations (Chapters 1-4), Anglo-Saxon institutional dominance and post-war migration (Chapters 5-8), contemporary challenges including radicalization and employment discrimination (Chapters 9-10), future directions for defining values and measuring integration success (Chapters 11-17), and consolidation through practical implementation pathways (Chapters 18-22). Throughout, the analysis maintains that First Peoples reconciliation and multicultural integration are interconnected challenges requiring coordinated responses rather than separate policy domains.
By 2050, Australia can realize a genuinely integrated multicultural society with First Peoples self-determination, reduced discrimination, equitable outcomes across communities, and strong social cohesion—but only through sustained commitment, adequate resourcing, institutional transformation, and genuine two-way integration requiring adaptation by both arriving communities and the host society. The alternative—continued polarization, radicalization, and social fragmentation—imposes far greater costs than the investment required for successful integration.