Point Piper residents were given a little taste of cultural diversity last Sunday, 27 September.
Parts of the small, overwhelmingly upper-middle-aged, two-thirds atheistic or Christian population were petitioned by the Party for Freedom to demand that “12,000 Syrian Muslim” refugees be resettled in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. They dressed in stereotypical Islamic attire (including freedom sacks for the sheilas) and played a few calls to prayer outside Malcolm Turnbull’s residence (police were understandably not keen for them to actually knock on his door) before moving on to shops at Double Bay.
The results were unsurprising: only one person signed the petition, although according to the PFF’s report on its event, she didn’t seem to know why she did so.
Said the PFF report: “In the spirit of ‘cultural diversity’ we believe the pampered upper echelons of the Australian political and business world should also accommodate these eager newcomers with open arms. There is plenty of room in the eastern suburbs to resettle the refugees.”
They aren’t completely serious, of course. The fledgling party’s manifesto specifically says its members are no fans of Islam, which is “fundamentally incompatible with [Australian] values”, and they’re equally unhappy with mobs of wealthy Chinese people buying up Sydney properties, which any libertarian like me shakes his head at; but they raise an important question: why should the doctors and their wives of rich, white enclaves be free from the results of the imposition of policies which so many of them support?
It’s all very well to have a wishy-washy, touchy-feely attitude to certain policies, such as refugee resettlement, but as the sayings go: put your money where your mouth is, for charity begins at home.
Pictures of the event can be seen here, and a video of their escapades is below.