One Nation wants to abolish the federal Minister for Multicultural Affairs, currently Labor's Anne Aly, and shut down the government office that sits under her. Senator Sean Bell has laid out the plan, and it takes direct aim at a department the Albanese government rebuilt only last year.
To be clear about what's actually on the table, this isn't about banning anyone's food, festivals or faith. Multiculturalism here means the official government policy, the minister, the taxpayer funded office and the programs built around it. That is what One Nation says has failed, and that is what it would remove.
What One Nation says it would scrap
Bell, One Nation's senator for New South Wales, told Sky News Sunday Agenda that the government's multicultural framework had failed to promote assimilation and should go.
"Multiculturalism is a government doctrine. What One Nation says is 'No, we believe that multiculturalism is not working'. We believe it should be scrapped," he said.
The Howard precedent behind the policy
One Nation says it wouldn't be doing anything that hasn't been done before. Bell held up the Howard government as the model.
"Under John Howard, I believe they scrapped the multiculturalism minister and office of multiculturalism, as we would," he said.
The record backs him on the office. When John Howard, the Liberal prime minister from 1996 to 2007, won office in 1996, his government absorbed the Office of Multicultural Affairs into the immigration department and stripped its funding, with all money for multiculturalism withdrawn in that year's budget. Spending on programs including English classes for new migrants was cut at the same time.
The office Labor rebuilt in 2025
The reason this is a live fight is that Labor put the office back. In 2025 the Albanese government re-established the Office for Multicultural Affairs, a government body inside the Home Affairs department that began operating in July 2025, set up to drive what Labor calls a coherent approach to multiculturalism and an inclusive society.
It was handed to Anne Aly, a Labor MP and the Minister for Multicultural Affairs, who holds the Perth seat of Cowan. She's the minister now in charge of the office, the programs and the translation services One Nation wants scrapped, and she's become their loudest defender.
Her office runs the country's settlement and language services. Two of them matter most here. The Adult Migrant English Program teaches English to new arrivals. The Translating and Interpreting Service, known as TIS, gives migrants free access to interpreters in around 150 languages when they deal with government. Those are the programs in One Nation's sights.
The fight over the office, in three dates
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1996 | Howard absorbs the Office of Multicultural Affairs into the immigration department and strips its funding |
| 2025 | Labor rebuilds it as the Office for Multicultural Affairs under Anne Aly |
| 2026 | One Nation says it would scrap the minister, the office and the government translation services |
Why government translation services are the target
One Nation's specific policy is to remove the government funded translation and interpreting services, on the argument that they let people avoid ever learning English. Bell told the Senate this week that they entrench "enclaves where English is rarely spoken," and that governments have reinforced them.
"This approach limits opportunity, weakens social trust and allows imported conflicts and prejudices to survive across generations," he said.
He argued the services encourage dependence rather than a foot in the door. "Those government translation services aren't there to help them in their day-to-day work," he said. "Those government translation services are assisting them with government services and getting on welfare."
The limit One Nation says it won't cross
Bell was careful to head off the obvious attack, that One Nation wants to police what language people speak at home. He said the policy is only about government services, not private life.
"At no point have we said that people can't be multilingual. What we are saying is that government services should be delivered in English," he said. "We shouldn't be creating this situation where you're encouraging a separation of society."
Labor's minister hits back
Aly rejected Bell's characterisation of language support, arguing it helps people take part in Australian life rather than pulling them away from it.
"You can't build opportunity and trust by locking people out of services they cannot understand," she told The Daily Telegraph. "Language support helps people find work, access help, raise their families and take part in Australian life. That is not separation, that's inclusion."
How it fits One Nation's monoculture push
This is the policy end of an argument One Nation has been making for weeks. Party leader Pauline Hanson used a major speech at the National Press Club to call for a monocultural Australia, one that stays multiracial, welcoming people from everywhere, but is bound together by one language, one set of laws and one national identity rather than many kept separate.
One Nation's warning is that the alternative is already on display overseas. In Britain, years of high immigration and hands off multiculturalism have left segregated communities, parallel lives and cities where integration has stalled. It's the exact outcome Bell points to when he talks about enclaves and imported conflicts surviving across generations, and the party argues Australia is being quietly steered down the same road.
And it isn't free. Multiculturalism is a standing line in the federal budget, over $435 million a year across grants, media, language schools and a taxpayer funded broadcaster. We broke down what monoculture actually means, the countries already running it, and the full bill. Bell's plan is to stop writing the cheque, scrap the minister, the office and the translation services, and push new arrivals to learn English and join in.
The Office for Multicultural Affairs has been gutted once before, by Howard in 1996, and rebuilt since. One Nation says it would scrap it again, before Australia ends up with Britain's problems and Britain's bill.
