Federal MP Tim Watts has urged all parties to resist efforts to divide Australians along cultural and ethnic lines, warning against a growing trend of anti-Indian sentiment among right-wing groups.
Speaking in the House of Representatives on 23 July, the Member for Gellibrand reflected on the message sent by voters at the last federal election. “The Australian public chose a government that reflects and represents modern Australia,” he said. “A diverse nation united by common values and aspirations… not by our differences but by what we have in common.”
Watts, who also serves as Special Envoy for Indian Ocean Affairs, used his adjournment speech to defend multiculturalism and social cohesion. “Cohesion is a verb, not a noun,” he said. “It means the action of forming a united whole. It’s an ongoing process, not an end state.”
He said cohesion requires active effort—listening with empathy, accepting differences, and avoiding judgement. “Australian multiculturalism works best when we work at it,” he told Parliament.
While praising the electorate for rejecting the politics of division, Watts called out specific incidents and trends that continue to erode trust between communities. He made pointed remarks about “some in this place” who had previously “demonised some groups and sought to divide the Australian community for political gain.”
The speech went on to critique both the Greens and the Liberal-National Coalition for their roles in the political temperature. To the Greens, Watts said, “You can’t build a political movement based on the premise that everyone who disagrees with you is either financially corrupt or morally evil.” He argued that such moral absolutism alienates potential allies and weakens the broader cause.
He then turned his attention to the Coalition’s conduct. “From labelling Chinese Australians participating in our democracy as Chinese spies, to actively preferencing Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party, it sometimes felt like the Liberal-National coalition were deliberately trying to alienate every segment of modern Australia.”
Watts reserved his strongest words for what he described as an emerging pattern in far-right circles—targeting the Indian diaspora. “Media reports have noted a significant increase in overtly racist AI-generated material targeting Indian Australian communities on social media platforms like TikTok,” he said.
Citing the former MP George Christensen’s bizarre claim that Indian migration was part of a “slow-motion election rigging” plan, Watts added, “George is an irrelevant nobody, but this kind of singling out of Indian migrants has more recently been taken up by Advance.”
He was referring to the group known for its close alignment with Coalition campaigns. “Advance recently published an anti-immigration video that explicitly singled out Indian and Chinese migrants as hurting Australia by sending remittances to their families,” Watts said.
He also questioned the motives behind using an image of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in a turban—taken during a Sikh community event—in the same video. “What are they trying to achieve by sharing a picture of the Prime Minister wearing a turban in an anti-immigration video? And why did they not use a picture of any other group referenced in that report?”
The Member for Gellibrand called on the Opposition Leader to step in. “The new Leader of the Opposition says that she wants the Liberal Party to reflect and represent modern Australia, and I’m glad to hear it,” he said. “A good contribution the new opposition leader could make is taking on this emerging trend of singling out Indian diaspora communities in anti-immigration rhetoric on the right.”
He ended his address with an invitation to work together across party lines. “All of us in this chamber should work together in this cause,” Watts said. “I welcome the Liberal Party joining this mission… She should nip it in the bud now, in the interest of a modern Australia.”
Watts’s message is clear: political gain should never come at the expense of Australia’s social fabric. And targeting specific communities, especially those who have helped shape the country’s modern identity, will not go unanswered.
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