The Shaking of Social Cohesion in Australia

Australia prides itself on its social stability. As a national disposition, stability is what Australians collectively seek. Rocking the boat is likely to get you a severe brow-beating, and public violence is considered completely intolerable. As a result, Melbourne and Sydney are two of the safest cities in the world. These are cities where the public’s trust in itself is very high. No one leaves their home concerned for their safety.

Yet the usual sense of calm and cohesion has been disturbed recently. The wars in Ukraine and Gaza have created new social tensions, and two stabbings within a week in Sydney have had a profound effect on Australia’s national sense of self.

The first incident occurred at a shopping center in the Sydney suburb of Bondi, where a man went on a rampage specifically targeting women. Five women were murdered, as well as a male security guard who confronted the man. Twelve other people were hospitalized, including a 9-month-old baby, whose mother was among the five women killed.

These stabbings have yet to be labeled terrorism by New South Wales police. We are still not at a point where we consider targeted violence against women to be a political act, nor do we consider violence against women having the direct purpose of inspiring fear in women wholesale. Maybe this is because to recognize violence against women as an act of terrorism would create a problem for the state too big to address. Yet given the rise in online misogynist groups, and a number of attacks in the United States and Canada that also targeted women, this is an issue that Australia cannot ignore.

Following the shopping center attack, an Assyrian Orthodox bishop was stabbed multiple times while giving a sermon at the Christ Good Shepherd Church in the Sydney suburb of Wakeley. The incident was immediately labeled a terrorist incident by New South Wales police. The stabbing was deemed to be political in nature, and deemed to be designed to inspire fear in others. Adding to the instability, parishioners turned on police as they attended the scene. Several police officers were injured and police cars vandalized.

These two stabbings could be considered unrelated incidents. A man with an extreme hostility toward women and a 16-year-old boy acting out of what police believe to be religious motivation seem distinct. But the underlying sense of frustration, radicalism, and domination underpin both. Both perpetrators displayed a profound unease with the world, and a desire to cause major disruption to Australian society. Both saw their own feelings as far more important than the lives of other people.

While Australia’s social cohesion remains robust, there is a sense that global conditions are creating a more suspicious and less trusting environment. The influence of political polarization in the United States is highly influential as the U.S has become Australia’s dominant cultural influence. Australia’s previously weak political identities have become more pronounced. Alongside this, tensions between different social groups within the Indian diaspora have appeared on Australia’s streets.

The two current major wars in Ukraine and Gaza have also created serious social divisions. Ripping through community groups within the West were the secondary aims of these wars’ instigators – Russia and Hamas. Hamas especially has been extraordinarily successful in this aim, creating deep social divisions that may take years to heal.

In his annual threat assessment delivered at the end of February, Mike Burgess, director-general of security at the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) noted that “We have seen heightened community tensions that have translated into some incidents of violence connected to protest activity. We have also observed an increase in rhetoric encouraging violence in response to the conflict. Hateful rhetoric has targeted Israel and the Jewish community, as well as Muslim and Palestinian communities.”

Speaking after the church stabbing, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made the connection between these incidents of violence, and the emerging social division. “Even if they are all separate they add to a social environment which makes issues difficult,” he said.

Albanese added, “There’s no doubt there’s been a rise in antisemitism, there’s been a rise in Islamophobia, there are people who are concerned about what is happening internationally, there are some who are translating that into issues in Australia.”

Australia has proved to be an extraordinarily successful society where people from all parts of the world have come and formed bonds of trust and cooperation. Yet recent events are eating into this trust, and there is a noticeable sense of unease that the country’s highly valued stability is being challenged. The hope has to be that Australians themselves realize that it is the responsibility of each individual to rectify, not exacerbate, these problems.