Page 3176 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 11 September 1991
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against the staff or management of 2XX. This station must try to cater for all community groups and time is limited by their resources. So, despite how hard the volunteers for the various groups work, no more than one half-hour per week can be devoted to any one language group. Some groups manage one only half-hour per fortnight.
Mr Speaker, the contributions of migrants to Australia's history and culture cannot easily be calculated or dismissed. We must ensure that our newest citizens are given even greater opportunities to contribute their talents to the community in which we live. May I also speak on behalf of our older citizens. One of the things that we have learnt from mixing with the ethnic communities in Canberra is that the first thing our older citizens lose is their second language. They then return to their original language. They find it very difficult if there is nobody around to speak their original language or the language they were born with. They have lost their English and cannot communicate with anybody. Listening to ethnic radio, until their families came home from work, would give them the chance to feel that they lived among our community and could hear what was going on.
The Dutch have learnt this very quickly in Australia and are building an old people's home or a retired people's home in Sydney. The Dutch were the first not to teach their children their language. Now they find not only that their children cannot speak to them but also that their grandchildren cannot speak to them. They are finding that they are left in the community without any way of speaking to people. The Dutch, as well as the Dutch Government, have put a lot of money into a retirement village in Sydney where these people will go and will be able to speak their original language. I find it disheartening that we have to do this. Even when people wish to keep their parents at home, until they come home from work the parents are locked out of the community. They are not able to speak to anybody.
Mr Speaker, I firmly believe that an ethnic radio station in Canberra is a very important item. After the launching the other week of the Atlas of the Australian People, we realise that we live in the most multicultural city in Australia. That is why Canberra is such a beautiful city to live in. It has all these cultures, all these different people from different countries whom we are able to mix with and who are able to make our lives so much better. I think not only of food. That is the first thing that people think of when they think of people who come from other lands. I think of their literature, their movies that we are able to see on ethnic television, the way they dress, the way they converse, and the different cultures that they come from. We are the richer for them in this city of Canberra. Therefore, Mr Speaker, I ask the ACT Assembly to come on board.
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