We’re all “Ordinary Australians”

I’m sure you’ve heard it. Pauline Hanson reckons there’s “no such thing as a good Muslim” and she’s said “ordinary Australians” aren’t welcome in suburban centres with big Muslim communities.

So I today I went down to my local shops. Southlands at Mawson - where I’m in and out three or four times a week. It also happens to be the Muslim community’s place to go in Canberra. I know the rhythm of the place because it’s my rhythm too. Grab ingredients for dinner. Get fresh bread. Pick up something sweet. Run into someone you know and stop for a quick yarn.

And, like every other day at Southlands, what I experienced was ordinary Australia. People buying food. People chatting. People lining up, paying, carrying bags, getting on with the day. Families feeding their families. Young people joking. Older people taking their time. The ordinary warmth of a community that’s busy and alive.

Which is why Hanson’s claim isn’t just wrong. It’s absurd.

Muslim Australians are ordinary Australians! They work. They pay bills. They worry about the cost of groceries. They look after their kids. They try to stay healthy. They meet a friend after work. They go to the gym or pilates. They do the school run. They catch up for a coffee. They do all the same things the rest of us do - because they are the rest of us.

And I’m not saying that from a distance, as some abstract commentator.

I’m an ordinary Aussie too. I worked in an abattoir to put myself through university. That’s not a metaphor. It’s a memory you can smell. Early starts. Hard work. Pay packets that mattered. The kind of job you do because you have to, not because it’s fun, and because you’re building a future. That’s ordinary.

So when someone uses “ordinary Australians” as a coded way of saying “not you” - or “not them” - I take it personally. Because ordinary isn’t a race. Ordinary isn’t a religion. Ordinary isn’t a postcode. Ordinary is people doing their best.

That’s what this video is about. It’s about what is right in front of our faces if we stop listening to racists and haters, to the people who make careers out of division. And if we start paying attention to actual life in actual communities.

I’m not pretending Australia’s perfect. Like any country, we’ve got prejudice and we’ve got people who will happily turn fear into votes. But we also have the daily, practical reality of multicultural Australia working - not as an abstract ideal, but as ordinary and daily life.

That’s what I see at Southlands.

And if you’re reading this and you’ve never stepped into a shop that feels “different” to what you grew up with, here’s a challenge that costs virtually nothing: go. Buy something. Say hello. Ask what’s good. Try a bread you’ve never had. Try a sweet you can’t pronounce.

Because the truth is boring in the best way. We’re all ordinary Australians.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/d3c6c2_2cb307fa68c9457ea8188c25c6d74b41/480p/mp4/file.mp4