With same-sex marriage, for example, Australians are deciding whether the old rules of relationships should still be enforced, or loosened. The debate isn’t just about competing arguments of freedom or fairness, or about what the word marriage should really mean; it’s also about whether or not to change how Australians interact with each other.

That question affects immigration too. The elevation of rules restricting access drives the refugee policy that led to the detention centers on Manus and Nauru. It’s also what lets the country’s leaders pat each other on the back for Australia’s “multicultural society” even as they work to add additional rules that make it harder to obtain citizenship, and insist that immigrants exhibit “Australian values,” which mean just about anything that the establishment deems important.

Indeed, I’m often struck by the gap between white Australians who insist everyone is welcomed in Australia — no hyphenated identities here! — and the experience of immigrants or the children of immigrants who tell me the many ways they are treated as “other” and made to feel that their differences are unwelcome.

This is hardly unique to Australia; immigrants and expanding ideas of sexuality and gender are challenging societal norms all over the world. And yet what’s so interesting about the current moment in Australia are the ways that these forces — those defending the status quo, and challenging it — are colliding.

The postal plebiscite for gay marriage has already been answered by nearly 60 percent of eligible Australians, far surpassing expectations. The debate over Australia’s refugee policies regularly brings out both supporters and critics, while outside the gaze of the Australian establishment, immigrant communities in places like Fairfield, one of Sydney’s most diverse western suburbs, are creating their own versions of “Australian values” every day.

Where, I often wonder, will Australia be in five or 10 years on its adherence to rules, and on these issues of sexuality and gender, and race and immigration?

With trust in government and media sharply declining in the country, will Australia become a messier or a more rigid democracy, with more bending of the rules or more conflict? Or will new compromises emerge?