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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/ng-interactive/2026/jul/27/barnaby-joyce-one-nation-immigration-monoculture-australia-refugees>
"The warm sound of Swahili gospel songs fills the air in the small church hall.
Worshippers sway in the pews. A woman dancing spills into the aisle. A trio of
women at the front harmonise: “Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.”
It is just past midday at the Armidale District Baptist church’s weekly Sunday
service for the regional New South Wales city’s growing Congolese community.
Fernand Numbi, a community leader, beams as he claps his hands at the front of
the hall.
“Higher, higher, higher,” he chants at about 30 worshippers.
“Higher,” the congregation responds in unison.
Numbi and his wife, Anne, were the first Congolese family to settle in Armidale
in February last year under the Australian government’s refugee resettlement
program.
As the pair began rebuilding their lives in the NSW high country, an
intensifying debate on Australia’s political right over multiculturalism and
social cohesion emerged.
Last December, the area’s federal MP, Barnaby Joyce, defected from the
Nationals to One Nation, saying he was “philosophically aligned” with the
rightwing party.
On a national level, One Nation is pushing a vision of a “monocultural”
Australia alongside an anti-immigration agenda. But in the electorate of the
party’s most high-profile recruit, a different story is playing out."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
