2GB Afternoons with Bill Woods - 26 June 2026

Melissa McIntosh MP
Shadow Minister for Families and Social Services
Shadow Minister for the NDIS
Shadow Minister for Women
Federal Member for Lindsay

26 June 2026

Transcript

2GB Afternoons with Bill Woods

Topics: Pauline Hanson ‘monoculture’ comments

E&OE

Bill Woods 

Melissa McIntosh, the Shadow Minister for the NDIS, and Liberal MP for the seat of Lindsay, very important seat for the Coalition. It's in the Penrith area, by the way, if you didn't know. She's had a chat about this this morning, and she's on the line. Thanks for your time, Melissa.

Melissa McIntosh 

Hi, how are you?

Bill Woods 

Well, thanks. You said this morning, and this is an interesting one, because it comes down to, as I said, how we prosecute this argument or debate, that is, that the idea of monoculturalism has not resonated with your community in Western Sydney. So, what have you been hearing?

Melissa McIntosh 

Thanks. When I said it's not resonating, what is monoculturalism? I think you really put the situation very well in your opening, because there's multiple issues feeding into this one word. Certainly, from an immigration perspective, my community bears the brunt of population growth, and I think unfairly so. Western Sydney has often been the place where we have stresses on our hospitals, on our roads, and on our housing, but then that's very different to a concept of monoculturalism, where we're almost creating a fake perception of how everyone should fit into modern Australia, or Australia as we see it now in the future, but I think we do have a strong multicultural country, but that multiculturalism needs to have a foundation of social cohesion, and I think that social cohesion is actually the true issue here, because that is fragmenting, and we are seeing that with what's happening in Bondi, and I think this is potentially what, and I don't want to put words in anyone's mouths, but the talk about monoculturalism means around this social cohesion piece.

Bill Woods 

And look, you know, I again, a lot of this does come down to semantics, and you could argue that, look, you know, why are we arguing about what multiculturalism means when there was clearly a good intention behind it. I mean, but in a sense, Al Grassby, who was said to be the father of multiculturalism, I'm old enough to be alive when Al was around, and was part of the Whitlam government, but I wonder if the whole thing was named incorrectly in the first place, Melissa, and this has led us down a lot of unnecessary rabbit holes over the years. I mean, Australia has a culture. You can't say that Australian culture is something, and then, in another word, say that there are more of them, or multiple cultures. It just doesn't make sense, does it?

Melissa McIntosh 

Yeah, and that's when we're talking about how we've gotten to where we are now, but the different cultures that have made up Australia also makes us who we are today. My background, my dad migrated here in the 1950s on a boat from Austria, and that's the story of so many Australian families who came out after the war in Europe, and everyone's got a story that makes up Australia as we see it today, and I don't think anyone that lives here would say that they would want it otherwise, and that that is part of multiculturalism as well. But we've just got to be really careful about words like monoculture, because I guess one of the most well-known monocultures in the world is North Korea, and we don't want Australia to be feeling anything about the culture of North Korea, so words matter in this debate, and people's emotions matter, and I think we have quite a high - I think people are quite on edge at the moment, and I feel like our democracy, in some forms, is at risk, and this is where Mike Burgess talks about the importance of social cohesion. You think about, well, what makes a strong democracy, what's strong communities, and the people that make up those communities, and certainly my community. Different cultures have come to live in Penrith, particularly have a strong Indian culture, Indian Australians, and Filipinos, and they volunteer and they make important contributions to our community and our democracy, so the shared values in a democracy really matter.

Bill Woods 

That's the key, of course. This is the thing. We can't confuse the core values, the shared values, the things that actually make the society cohesive, as you say, with the more incidental things, like, for example, fashion or food, those sorts of things. I think that's where people get a little bit confused, because you can have a single culture that is influenced and indeed evolves, particularly in a young country like ours, as you say, where the vast majority of people actually came here, rather than, you know, their ancestries from here. So it's a debate that gets people fired up, and I find it very amusing, though, that when we get down to some serious topics about, you know, societal behaviour, and whether we should allow, you know, deviant behaviour in, as how we view it, to be allowed in this community that we start suddenly talking about restaurants, you know what I mean. It is about those core values that we should be sharing. I don't know how we get that in focus.

Melissa McIntosh 

I think it's what grabs the headlines as well, I think. I think it's a really good time to talk about what makes Australia, what we call it the best country in the world, and it is the foundations of what makes a strong democracy and even comes down to things like people volunteering. We're losing volunteers in our community at rapid rates as people age, and that's around community spirit as well. Having a fair go, standing up for your neighbour, looking out for each other, and that forms part of the values of our country, and you talk about multiculturalism as well, and something I'm really passionate about, and I think we don't talk enough about is around equality. Equality for Australians, and a Liberal value is equality of opportunity, and I think these are important values for us to remember as foundation pieces of our nation, as opposed to where somebody comes from, what race they are.

Bill Woods 

Well, just on that, yes, but just on that, though. You must agree, even in the diverse community you represent, that there are some people who come here from, and look, I'm not blaming them for it, I mean, their opinions will hopefully change, but they might come here from a country out of necessity, that views women as second-class citizens, for example, and that's part of the culture they came from, and that's certainly something they must adapt to, surely, but not maintain.

Melissa McIntosh 

Absolutely should not maintain that, and that's where it gets into a serious discussion, and that we shouldn't just be talking about restaurants and food and things, because there are some serious components of this, forced marriage, and I don't, you know, it's not a very nice lunchtime topic, but female genital mutilation, things like that, that does get brought to our country from other places, and that should not be, absolutely should not be allowed, and it is actually against the law in this country. So, this is where the debate gets extremely complex. Our values, our Australian values, certainly aren't forced marriages and all those types of things, it's equality for women and men, equality for all, and I think there's an important part around civic integration as well. You know, you can have your culture, but what is the Australian culture, and being part of that, and learning the English language, because that is our predominant language here in Australia, and ultimately contributing to our society. So it's a headline right now. I'm sure, when I'm back in my seat, back in Penrith, if I go up and down the high street and have a chat with people and say, “do you believe in monoculture?” That's what I was getting at - most people wouldn't even know what I'm talking about. It's when you get into the deeper discussions around the country's future, I think that's where the important debate will happen.

Bill Woods 

Yeah, that must be had. And look, I'm sorry to sort of corner you here. We've only got about a minute and a half or two minutes before we need to get to a break, but there are two strands to this debate as well that also get unnecessarily confused. One is simply in the short term we need to look at immigration numbers, because we have a shortage of housing, particularly, and other infrastructure. That is separate to the broader cultural debate that we've just been talking about.

Melissa McIntosh 

You're spot on, and I'm a passionate advocate for my community when it comes to dropping the levels of immigration. I surveyed my electorate some time ago now, probably at the beginning of the year, and we were up in the 90% of people don't want to reduce the rates of immigration, and this is purely the pressure that people are feeling on their lives. You can't get around. We've got pothole roads right next to an international airport that's about to open. Our hospitals are bursting at the seams, you know, and you can't get housing in my patch, it's really, really hard, and people are lining up at food banks that have double incomes, and we now have the working homeless, as opposed to the working poor, where people are making a decision whether to have a house roof over their heads, or to eat at a food bank, or to buy food. Like, it's really, really tough going out there. And immigration population growth is what's putting pressure on people.

Bill Woods 

Melissa McIntosh. Thank you very much for your time.

Melissa McIntosh 

Thank you.