These have been torrid times with many in deep mourning, reeling from the Bondi tragedy. It’s hard to be jolly and pretend nothing has happened, and we should not.
One of the shocking aftermaths of the massacre is the appalling way some abused the acute suffering of the Jewish community by trying to score cheap political points.
They may have taken lessons from Trump and his white supremacist mobsters.
Pauline Hanson was recently a guest at Mar-a-Lago and has embraced MAGA. She is even mimicking Trump’s lack of compassion at this sad time.
If those two terrorists succeed in dividing our community, turning us against each other, they effectively win. We must not, and will not, let that happen.
Racist hatred has been drummed up in America and England against immigrants, especially non-whites, and non-Christians.
This fear campaign, funded by wealthy elites, has led to a rise in support for Nigel Farage’s right wing populist Reform UK party to the extent he could even become the next UK prime minister.
Here, Pauline Hanson has lassoed Barnaby Joyce into her dodgy party. She thinks she is on to a winner with her vicious xenophobia and sadly a substantial minority agrees with her. One Nation is moving up in the polls as Liberals slide into irrelevance.
She exploited the tragedy with anti-migrant comments amongst mourners at Bondi who hadn’t even begun to recover from the initial shock.
Hanson is a throwback to the fifties when nasty racist slurs such as dago, wog, reffo, pommy, and spic were used routinely.
Australia has changed enormously since the White Australia policy days, when we regarded ourselves as a Christian nation.
We are now a mini–United Nations with 270 ethnic groups and over 100 different religious affiliations. Four in ten Australians have ‘no religion’, about the same number who consider themselves Christians. Only about one in five Australians attends religious services regularly.
Despite the paranoia of some fearful white Australians, there’s no going back to the old days. Multicultural Australia is here to stay.
In the sixty plus years I have been here, arriving as a fresh-faced Ten Pound Pom on a Boeing 707, the changes have been profound. I was told to ‘go back where you came from’ a couple of times.
I had no idea then about the border wars and the dispossession and massacres of First Nations people. I was on a steep learning curve.
Some Australians try to cling to the past in a vain attempt to feel safer, but it’s not possible.
The world is evolving around us and constantly changing.
There are nearly a million Muslims living in Australia, from a diverse range of countries, and all but a tiny handful are peaceful law-abiding citizens, as are the nearly three quarters of a million Hindus who call Australia home.
A couple of radicalised lunatics do not represent anyone but themselves. They do not represent the community.
We cannot allow ourselves to be divided into warring groups.
The archaic Westminster system of government where two major parties constantly battle it out trying to belittle the other side is not working in today’s Australia.
That became glaringly evident with shockingly inappropriate comments by Sussan Ley and others.
To address this, we need MPs who primarily represent their communities not party ideologies. The rise of the Teals is an indication of a growing rejection of the outdated two-party duopoly.
Media must also take responsibility for causing divisions in our society. The Murdoch media have been vicious with their unfounded attacks on Anthony Albanese, demanding he resign and blaming him for the tragedy because Australia officially recognised the state of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly last September.
An intelligence failure by ASIO needs to be their target. How was it possible for a man whose son was a known radical to own six rifles legally? A Royal Commission may enlighten us.
Here in our Shire, we too have a huge diversity of beliefs and opinions. People living side by side have vastly different views of the world and yet we can and do get on peacefully as friendly neighbours.
Rather than point out our differences, let us just accept that no two people are the same. No two leaves are the same. No two atoms are identical.
We are all different from each other yet part of one big family.
People are so tired of bickering and nastiness, hate and anger. We all just want to live peaceful lives and get along with everybody else with their diverse beliefs and backgrounds.
We can show the way here in our community by being extra kind to each other. Smile at strangers, stop to let cars in stuck by the stream of traffic, be generous with hugs.
Let’s just be kind.
Richard Jones is a former NSW MLC, and is now a ceramist.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
