Page 1688 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 7 June 2022
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The past year has seen us continue to deliver Safer Families initiatives and work with the community sector. It has also seen government, and especially the community sector, overcome incredible challenges from COVID-19, and I again acknowledge those who have experienced violence during this time. I acknowledge and deeply thank all who have worked to keep our community safe.
Domestic and family violence is everyone’s business. We still have much work to do. I look forward to continuing this work to make Canberra a safer place for everyone.
I present the following papers:
Safer Families Annual Statement—
2022.
Ministerial statement, 7 June 2022.
I move:
That the Assembly take note of the ministerial statement.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Multicultural affairs—legislation
Ministerial statement
MS CHEYNE (Ginninderra—Assistant Minister for Economic Development, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Business and Better Regulation, Minister for Human Rights and Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (10.24): Madam Speaker, I am delighted to rise today to share with this Assembly progress to date on the development of the ACT’s Multicultural Recognition Act. This new legislation, due for presentation to this Assembly later this year, will further our government’s commitment to an inclusive and welcoming Canberra where everyone can belong and participate in social, cultural, economic and civic life.
Our journey began in April last year, with the release of the first discussion paper, “Towards a Multicultural Recognition Act for the Australian Capital Territory”. This paper provided a platform for extensive community consultation and enabled us to hear from Canberrans about the proposed legislation and what should be included. We held conversations online, face-to-face and directly with stakeholders and received formal submissions.
Our community told us about a range of unmet and emerging needs in this space and shared ideas on initiatives which could aim to improve livability, accessibility and representation for Canberrans from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The concepts we explored included the need for a set of guiding principles in a charter to define what our ACT community strives to be; legislating the Multicultural Advisory Council to advocate on behalf of the multicultural community to the ACT government; and embedding transparent accountability mechanisms into government practice, with regular reporting back to the ACT.
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