Penny Wong Warns Populism Threatens Australia's Security

Foreign Minister Penny Wong will use a high-profile speech on Friday to declare that the rise of populism threatens Australia's national security, saying the "melancholic fantasy of monoculture" risks making Australia "lonely in a dangerous world".

Senator Wong will deliver the annual Gyngell Lecture — which is named after the revered policy stalwart Allan Gyngell who died in 2023 — at the Lowy Institute in Sydney.

It comes as Labor continues to struggle in the polls, with Pauline Hanson and One Nation remaining politically ascendant, despite increasingly sharp scrutiny from other political parties and the media.

One Nation has vowed to slash foreign aid and withdraw Australia from multilateral institutions if it wins power, while Senator Hanson has taken aim at corruption among Pacific leaders.

Senator Wong will not mention the party by name in her speech, but will make multiple clear references to One Nation's core policies, arguing that isolationism will impoverish and isolate Australia.

"Denigrating our region and neglecting our partners is no way to secure Australia's interests," she will say.

"Neither is encouraging some kind of retreat from the world and the institutions that go with it."

This year's Lowy Institute poll shows Australians are increasingly unhappy with migration levels, with 55 per cent saying the total number of migrants coming to Australia is "too high" — as well as a sharp drop in the number of Australians who support cultural diversity.

But 73 per cent of those polled still said they see diversity as "entirely" or "mostly" positive, which Senator Wong will say shows the nation still retains faith in the multiculturalism, even if social cohesion is "under pressure".

Senator Hanson has called for a return to "monoculturalism", although she insists that the term is not racially discriminatory and simply requires migrants of all faiths and backgrounds to embrace Australian values.

Senator Wong will argue this vision is not just at odds with the reality of modern Australia but will also leave the nation adrift in Asia, and "lonely in a dangerous world".

"I've always believed the ability of Australians to connect with people from every part of the world is a national asset … an asset that expands our choices in the world," she will say.

"The call for a monoculture is a call for Australia to curtail our choices and cut off our connections … to look inwards, to have no friends to work with, no partners to trade with, no opportunities to grow from."

She will also argue that a poisonous debate over diversity could also stoke social resentments and division in Australia.

"Well before we could ever realise this melancholic fantasy of monoculture, there is a lot of damage that can be done," she will say.

"Because Australians would be turned against each other. Australia would be a more hostile place. Harder to be family, harder to be a friend, colleague, or neighbour."

The foreign minister will also suggest that fuelling division will make Australia more vulnerable to disinformation campaigns from "external" forces — although she will not point the finger at any foreign states.

Researchers have previously accused some authoritarian states — including China and Russia — of running disinformation campaigns aimed at fracturing social trust in Australian democracy and driving narratives more favourable to them.

"At a time where external and internal forces are seeking to divide us, turning Australians against each other makes us more vulnerable," Senator Wong will say.

"Division makes us easier to exploit, it doesn't make us stronger."