Published: 19 November 2024
Last updated: 19 November 2024
Australia remains at its lowest level of social cohesion in recorded history, with support for multiculturalism falling and suspicion of religious communities on the rise.
The annual survey by the Scanlon Foundation found Australians’ sense of belonging and connection is at its equal lowest level since the project started in 2007.
Almost half of Australians (48%) have negative attitudes to people of a religion different from their own, up from 38% in 2023.
Negative attitudes towards Jewish people have increased, but they are still low: up from 9% in 2023 to 13% in 2024.

Negative attitudes to Christians are a little higher, having increased from 16% to 19%.
But negative attitudes to Muslims are much higher, with one in three (34%) of adults saying they have a somewhat or very negative attitude towards Muslims. This figure increased from 27% in July 2023, before the current conflict in the Middle East, although it is lower than the highest recorded level of 40% in 2019.
Comments3
John Lazarus3 December at 06:39 am
Beverly – Bob Marley considered himself a Rasta, being one of the 12 tribes of Israel, and proudly wore the Star of David in Rasta colours. Its not abandon all cultural connections, its lets all live together respectfully
Beverley19 November at 04:53 pm
I am surprised that antisemitism is complained about when there is more racism against all other ethnic groups than about Jews.
In fact I do not like the word antisemitism, as it separates Jews from the rest of humanity, in much the same way as the word gentiles
There will only be peace in the world when it is recognised that all the people that share our planet are, in the words of singer Bob Marley,
“One Love, One Heart”.
Tal Spinrad19 November at 06:19 am
What sets us, Jews, apart in this is we are not exclusively a religion. We are a People. So whereas negative thoughts about Christians and Muslims can and are directed towards the articulation of the faith, the anti Semitism is directed at an entire People.