Australia news live: ski fields reach July temperature high; diesel prices surge

Follow the latest updates live

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Liberal senator ‘strongly disagrees’ with Tony Abbott on multiculturalism

The Liberal senator Andrew Bragg says he “strongly disagrees” with Tony Abbott after the former prime minister said that multiculturalism had “failed in Australia”.

Well, I don’t agree with that, and I’d make the point that liberalism has actually created multiculturalism because it creates a framework for people to have freedom of religion, freedom of thought, freedom of conscience. And the Liberal Party built modern Australia, if you look at the Menzies government opening up after the war, the Holt government abolishing parts of the White Australia policy, and then, of course, Malcolm Fraser’s actions to promote multiculturalism and introduce things like the SBS.

So we have a very proud record to stand on, and I think it’s very important that we’re clear about that.

If we’re going to have the prosperous and progressive society that we have always wanted, that we’ve always enjoyed in Australia, we need to make sure that we have a migration program that’s delivering for our country, that’s driving productivity, not taking away from it, but restoring a White Australia policy is not part of that.