Australia’s left-wing Labor government has announced the establishment of a new Office for Multicultural Affairs, and placed the minister responsible in cabinet for the first time ever.
Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke and newly appointed Minister for Multicultural Affairs Anne Aly, a Muslim Egyptian immigrant, last week announced the creation of the new office within Mr Burke’s department.
Mr Burke and Ms Aly said the office would “help strengthen the cohesiveness of Australia’s diverse, multicultural society by engaging across whole-of-government and whole-of society interests to drive a coherent approach to multiculturalism and an inclusive society”.
It will also be responsible for the government’s Adult Migrant English Program and Translating and Interpreting Service, and Ms Aly will have her multiculturalism ministry elevated to Cabinet for the first time in Australia’s history.
Ms Aly called the establishment of the office a “significant step”, and said it showed the importance of celebrating multiculturalism and “valuing diversity”.
“Multiculturalism is not just about or for a section of our society, each and every one of us belongs to an Australia that has been enriched by our 65,000 years of ‘first nations’ culture and the successive stories, traditions and histories of those who have come across the seas,” Ms Aly said.
“Our success as a modern multicultural nation is underwritten by our mutual respect for individual freedoms and equality of opportunity for Australians in all our diversity.”
The Home Affairs multicultural affairs program last year spent more than $30 million on “social cohesion” grants for Palestinian, Muslim and Arab communities, and $30 million for the Jewish community to rebuild the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne which was burnt-out in a still-unsolved firebombing.
Another $7 million went to the Australian Associated Press, multiculturalism broadcaster SBS, the Australian Human Rights Commission, the Islamophobia Register of Australia, and the Australian National Imams Council’s Islamophobia Australia organisation to combat racism and mis- and disinformation.
But Hass Dellal, Chair for the Multicultural Framework Review and Chair of the Australian Multicultural Foundation, told SBS News the new office fell short of demands from immigrant communities to create an entirely new department of Multicultural Affairs, Immigration and Citizenship.
“It’s not the full recommendation of a dedicated department that included immigration and citizenship as well, but however, this is a step in the right direction,” he said.
“The fact that we have an office now that’s being established that sits within cabinet that will have the ear of the Prime Minister and cabinet itself. And I think that’s an important feature that wasn’t there before.”
Header image: Left, Anne Aly during the federal election campaign. Right, Tony Burke panders to immigrants (Facebook).
