DIMA Annual Report 1998-99
Sub-program 4.1: Multicultural Affairs
Performance outcomes
(i) National Multicultural Advisory Council
When the National Multicultural Advisory Council (NMAC), chaired by Mr Neville Roach, was appointed in 1997, one of its first tasks was to develop a report which recommended a policy and implementation framework for the next decade, aimed at ensuring that cultural diversity is a unifying force for Australia.
During the year the Council worked on and finalised its report, Australian multiculturalism for a new century: Towards inclusiveness which was launched by the Prime Minister and the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs in May 1999 at Parliament House.
The report comments on the impressive record of multicultural policy which the Council sees as stemming from strong Australian democratic traditions, and the goodwill of the Australian people. The Council considers multiculturalism should be seen as relevant to all Australians, and not just concerned with the needs of migrants from different cultural backgrounds.
Departmental officers provided a range of secretariat services to the Council and helped draft its report to the Minister.
The report will be considered by the Government. The Department is coordinating assistance to the Government in preparing a response which is expected to be tabled in Parliament toward the end of 1999.
Membership
Mr Neville Roach Chairman
Mr Randolph Alwis
Bishop David Cremin
Mr Melville Fialho
Mr Angelo Hatsatouris OAM
Dr Chandran Kukathas
Ms Peggy Lau-Flux
Mr Alister Maitland
Professor Bruce McKern
Dr Colin Rubenstein
Ms Evelyn Scott
Dr My-Van Tran OAM
Dr Peter Wong AM
Ms Agnes Whiten
Emeritus Professor Jerzy Zubrzycki AO CBE
Performance outcomes
(ii) Living in Harmony initiative
After extensive research and consultation, the Government's anti-racism campaign was launched as the Living in Harmony initiative in August 1998. The initiative comprises three linked elements - a community grants program, a partnership program and a public information strategy.
Its centrepiece is the community grants program, which relies on local groups to identify relevant issues at the 'grass roots' level and to propose suitable projects to address their own community needs, using local means and solutions.
Following the launch in August, more than 700 community grants applications were received. The Department's assessment process involved examining each application against criteria set out in published guidelines. The Department was assisted in this process by a sub-committee of the National Multicultural Advisory Council which advised on the geographic and sectorial distribution, and the overall focus of the grants to receive funding.
In March and May 1999, the Minister announced 100 grants totalling about $5 million. Successful applications were those assessed as having best met the criteria of the grants program, and those that had the greatest chance of influencing others in the community to share the objectives of the initiative.
Through the partnership projects, the Department is working with key businesses and community organisations to develop demonstration projects aimed at improving social cohesion, tackling racism, or generating better understanding, respect and cooperation among people from different cultural backgrounds.
Partners include the NSW Rural Fire Service, Australian Cricket Board, Australian Multicultural Foundation, NSW Ethnic Communities' Council, ACT Festivals Inc, Australia Foundation for Culture and the Humanities, and the Conference of Education Systems Chief Executive Officers, Sub-Group on Racism in Schools.
Partnerships have also been formed with Woolworths Limited, McDonald's Australia, Westfield Group and Berri Limited to help publicise key messages of the initiative.
The public information strategy is being implemented to promote and reinforce the concepts and practice of acceptance and fairness in the community. it will also publicise the outcomes and the achievements of grants and partnership projects.
Performance outcomes
(iii) Charter of Public Service in a Culturally Diverse Society
Awareness of the Charter was raised through 39 workshops conducted from March to June 1999 in all capital cities and five regional centres. The workshops targeted managers across all agency areas responsible for policy, planning, service delivery, implementation, evaluation and monitoring in their organisations.
The workshops were well attended and well received, with more than 750 participants from across Commonwealth agencies, as well as state, territory and local governments and relevant community organisations.
In addition to the workshop program and advice provided to individual agencies on implementing the Charter, the Department provided advice to the Australian Local Government Association in relation to its publication Services for All: Promoting Access and Equity in Local Government.
During 1998-99, the Department published the 1998 Access and Equity Annual Report documenting progress in implementing the Charter across Commonwealth departments and agencies, A Good Practice Guide for Culturally Responsive Government Services, and five Responding to Diversity fact sheets.
These publications formed the Charter kits distributed as a resource to workshop participants. For the first time, state and local government input was included in the 1998 Access and Equity Annual Report.
The Secretary launched the Department's Access and Equity Plan 1999-2000: Implementing the Charter of Public Service in a Culturally Diverse Society in departmental state and territory off ices throughout Australia. The Department promotes the use of these publications, all being available on the Department's website.
Top of PagePerformance outcomes
(iv) Productive diversity
The Commonwealth Government is committed to highlighting the economic benefits of Australia's cultural diversity and the range of skills, languages, business networks and experience which it has to offer.
Through its Productive Diversity (PD) strategy, the Government has encouraged Australian business to consider this unique resource and to capitalise on its ability, for example, to increase manufacturing productivity, improve export growth, and improve customer service to cultural groups in the domestic and international marketplaces.
In 1998, two studies were conducted to assist further development of the strategy:
- a survey of business school and Tertiary and Further Education curricula to determine the level of diversity management education in Australia. Findings indicated an increase in diversity management education since a similar study in 1994. The research identified opportunities to advance diversity education and these related to strengthening education in the business case for diversity, encouraging teaching programs to work closely with industry, and exploring the desirability of a set of common diversity education curricula; and
- research in partnership with the Committee for Economic Development of Australia to determine awareness and application of PD management practices among Australian companies. Findings indicated a high level of philosophical commitment to PID management principles, but a general lack of work strategies or practices that aim to respond to cultural diversity in the workplace. Strong support for PID was demonstrated when managers were shown some specific business benefits, such as increased productivity and improved customer service. The Minister launched this report, Diversity and Dollars, in March 1999.
As a result of these two studies, development of the PID strategy in 1999 has focused on collaboration with educational and business institutions to produce practical educational and management tools that respond to diversity management issues.
Top of PagePerformance outcomes
(v) Provision of advice on policy issues
Community reporting
In 1998-99, 588 briefs, speech notes and other documents were produced for use by the Minister or the Prime Minister and their representatives at community events (680 in 1997-98). Deadlines were met in 99 per cent of cases, compared with 95 per cent in 1997-98.
Community relations in Australia were improved by, among other things, the sub-program's involvement in establishing close liaison between the Minister and the Serbian and Albanian communities regarding NATO activity in the Balkans, and in activities to build on the goodwill of the Australian public toward the evacuees from Kosovo offered safe haven in Australia.
Raising issues about the involvement of migrants in crime led to the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) being asked to undertake a research study, Ethnicity and Crime. Its findings were presented at the 3rd National Outlook Symposium on Crime in Australia in March 1999.
The paper presented at the Symposium was released by the AIC in June 1999 in its Trends and Issues series. It examines the only two birthplace data collections available on criminal offenders in Australia - Victoria Police's data collection on alleged offenders in that State, and the data collection on those in Australian prisons. The data show that while, overall, those born overseas commit proportionally fewer offences than those born in Australia, some migrant groups are over-represented.
Assistance was provided to the National Crime Prevention secretariat in developing a research proposal into Crime Prevention in Migrant and Refugee Communities.
Issues affecting culturally and linguistically diverse women
In 1998-99 the Department focused on mainstreaming responsibility for addressing migrant women's issues, promoting the Charter of Public Service in a Culturally Diverse Society.
This required agencies to recognise the needs of migrant women and to address these appropriately in designing, developing and implementing all public service programs.
Workshops on the Charter targeted government and non-government employees and provided participants the opportunity to identify and consider gender issues in policy development and service delivery.
The Department also focused on developing effective partnerships with other government and non-government agencies, and continued to provide policy advice on a range of issues affecting culturally diverse women, including sport, outworking in the garment industry, domestic violence, and proposed reforms to family law.
As part of the Partnerships Against Domestic Violence initiative, the Department finalised a research paper on the feasibility of accessing and disclosing the domestic and criminal violence history of Australians who sponsor overseas-born spouses, prospective spouses or interdependent partners for migration to, or permanent residence in, Australia.
As well, the Department produced the Marrying and Migrating... You have to work at it video in two more languages - Russian and Tagalog. An information kit complementing the video will shortly be available in six community languages, including Russian and Tagalog.
Marrying and Migrating products have been developed in response to concerns about the incidence of serial sponsorship and violence against women sponsored to Australia as fiancees and spouses.
Youth issues
The Department was involved in the First National Youth Round Table held in Canberra 8-10 March 1999. The Minister participated in the formal luncheon in the Great Hall at Parliament House on 10 March. Departmental officers attended several relevant sessions and participated in one of the discussion groups, National Perspectives, answering questions on immigration and multicultural issues.
Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia Inc
Departmental liaison with the community was facilitated through funding of the Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia Inc (FECCA). As required in the grant agreement FECCA provided community input through its submissions to the 1999 Federal Budget and the 1999 Migration and Humanitarian Programs.
As well, it provided an avenue for community views to be put to the Senate Committee on Tax Reform, the National Youth Round Table and the Government's report to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. It is also represented on numerous boards and committees.