by Miranda Devine
Mother Tara Coverdale
Like most mothers with young
children, Tara Coverdale enjoys opportunities to socialise with other mothers of
children the same age while on maternity leave, especially in her neighbourhood
in inner-city Sydney.
So when a Russian-born friend
mentioned a playgroup on Thursdays, at the Alexandria Park Community Centre,
she was enthusiastic.
Two weeks ago, on a humid
Thursday morning, she bundled her eight-month-old baby in the pram and walked
with her four-year-old son the short distance to the community centre.
When she arrived, her red-haired
son raced off to play while she looked around for her friend.
That was when a staff member
approached and asked if it was her first day. Coverdale thought how nice that
she was so attentive.
"I'm sorry you can't come here. It's a multicultural playgroup."
But then the woman said: “Can I
ask what your cultural background is?”
Taken aback, Coverdale, who has
blonde hair and freckles, said: “I’m Australian”.
Immediately, the woman said: “I’m
sorry, you can’t come here. It’s for multicultural families and people who
speak languages other than English at home.”
Coverdale stood her ground: “I
said ‘I’m not leaving’. My kids were playing. My older son was having such a
good time with his buddy, and I thought, ‘Why should I leave?’”
But then the centre
“facilitator”, aka manager, Jo Fletcher, confronted her: “Can I just ask what
your cultural background is.”
When Coverdale said she was
fourth-generation Australian, Fletcher said: “I’m sorry you can’t come here.
It’s a multicultural playgroup.”
This conversation is an account
from Coverdale’s recollection. Fletcher did not respond to phone calls and a
text message last week, but she confirmed to the NSW Department of Education,
which funds the centre, that such a conversation had taken place.
Coverdale said she tried charm in
a bid to be allowed to attend the playgroup, but Fletcher insisted it was
exclusively for “multicultural” mothers who “might be lonely and might want to
build a network of people who speak the same language”.
Coverdale asked wouldn’t it be
better for those mothers to meet someone like her, who knows a lot of people in
the community.
“What if I was really lonely and
I get sent away from a play group?”
Then she asked what playgroup
would she be allowed to join.
“We don’t have one here for you,”
said Fletcher. “You’ll have to go up to Erskineville or Newtown.”
Erskineville’s playgroup is for
“Rainbow babies and kids”, and Newtown is a 30-minute walk.
The only other playgroup offered
at Alexandria Park is on Wednesdays but it is reserved for “Swedish-speaking
families”, according to a timetable Fletcher provided.
“We’re in a pretty progressive
area,” says Coverdale. “It’s very accepting of all people. But I feel like I’m
excluded.”
And she asks: “How does that help
Australia help people to integrate, speak English and build a life…
“I pay a lot of tax. I pay my
rates. To think I’m actually not welcome is unfair.”
The other mums thought her
treatment was “terrible… They think it’s a great facility and appreciate it but
they don’t want to exclude people”.
While she was at the centre she
saw other mothers walk in and, “they were made to feel very welcome. Because
they didn’t look ‘Australian’ they didn’t even get asked about their
background.”
So Coverdale and her red-haired
sons were ejected from the playgroup.
Ironically enough, it was just a
few days before Harmony Day, a big event at Alexandria Park, “to celebrate our
country’s cultural diversity”, with a free halal beef and chicken sausage
sizzle. To twist the knife a little deeper, this year’s theme was “We all
belong”.
Just not if you are of
“Anglo-Celtic” heritage.
Anti-Discrimination Board Acting
President Elizabeth Wing confirmed on Friday that “on the face of it”,
exclusion from a playgroup “on the basis of race or ethnic background... would
appear to be a breach of the [anti-discrimination] act”.
After being alerted to the
problem on Friday, Education Minister Rob Stokes and his department, to their
credit, instructed Fletcher to allow all families to attend the playgroup.
“I was disappointed to hear that
a mum and her young child felt they were not welcome... This is not acceptable.
Everyone, regardless of their background, should feel included in these
wonderful community activities.”
The Education Department also has
“counselled the program facilitator [Fletcher] regarding the requirement of the
program to be inclusive”, said a spokesman late Friday.
A good result, but Fletcher is a
creature of her milieu. It is politically incorrect to say so, but anti-white
racism is now acceptable in Australia, in the name of diversity and
“celebrating difference”.
In the ADF, for instance, there
are attempts to erase the “Anglo-Saxon” warrior culture, and a recent lamb
advertisement stated there are “too many white people” on TV, and lined up
caucasians sneeringly labelled “white-whites, translucent whites, beige whites,
red whites, and dark whites”.
Bigotry is condoned as a
corrective to so-called “white privilege”.
But reinforcing separate cultural
identities inevitably leads to the balkanization of Australia and the disowning
of our national identity.
Thankfully, Zed Seselja,
Assistant Minister for Multicultural Affairs, last month reset national policy,
with an approach which emphasises unity and shared values. It’s about time.
