Australia's language and multicultural policies have constructed the intercultural dimension of Australian identity and practice in a number of different ways relating to different community groups. This paper traces the evolution of multicultural policy from the 1970s until the present through the main national policy documents in order to examine how understandings of multiculturalism and the participation of various cultural groups within a multicultural society has changed over time. It demonstrates that although the ways in which multiculturalism and the interrelationship of ethnic groups within Australian identity has evolved over time, the positioning of the monocultural majority and ethnic minorities within the overall multicultural framework has consistently been understood in different ways. The result is a policy context in which there are multiple ideologies of multiculturalism at play and the existence of tensions between the forces of diversity and integration within the same policy context. (Contains 10 notes.)