Loading “Reading only news that we agree with, interacting with people only we agree with, and having less understanding and grace towards others that we do not even know, making the worst possible assumptions about them and their motives, simply because we disagree with them.” “This is true of the left and the right, and even more so from those shouting from the fringes to a mainstream of quiet Australians that just want to get on with their lives.” “Hate, blame and contempt are the staples of tribalism. It is consuming modern debate, egged on by an appetite for conflict as entertainment, not so different from the primitive appetites of the colosseum days, with a similar corrosive impact on the fabric of our society.” Mr Morrison cited the definition of “contempt” as the “unsullied conviction of the worthlessness of another” and said this was a dangerous direction in light of the Christchurch killings.

“That is where mindless tribalism takes us,” he said. “It ends in the worst of places. Last week it ended the lives of 50 fellow human beings, including children praying in Christchurch.” Mr Morrison quoted the American author, Arthur Brooks, the president of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, who said recently, “What we need is not to disagree less, but to disagree better.” The Prime Minister endorsed that comment. “When we disagree better, we engage with respect, rather than questioning each other’s integrity and morality,” he said.

The speech comes at a time when the government is caught up in a row over its rhetoric on migration, multiculturalism and border security over several years. Former prime minister Tony Abbott dismissed the problem of Islamophobia less than two years ago. “All too often in officialdom’s ranks there is this notion that Islamophobia is almost as big a problem as Islamist terrorism, well Islamophobia hasn’t killed anyone,” Mr Abbott said in June 2017. Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has questioned decisions in the 1970s to allow Lebanese Muslims into Australia, sparking strong criticism from the Muslim community. Mr Morrison has warned about the threat from asylum seekers in his attack on Labor for supporting the refugee medical transfer bill passed by the Parliament last month.

Loading “They may be a paedophile, they may be a rapist, they may be a murderer and this bill would mean that we would just have to take them,” Mr Morrison said of the refugees who might be transferred. He warned that “hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of single males” could be transferred from Manus Island and Nauru. The Prime Minister’s critics blame him for some of the divisive debate about migrants and refugees. “This is the same man who has built his career on scaremongering against people of colour and asylum seekers,” said Tim Lo Surdo, founder of activist group Democracy in Colour.