Page 2308 - Week 06 - Friday, 27 June 2008
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The second point is that I must say that the multicultural police liaison program is going pretty well. I am pleased to see that there has been some increase in capacity in the number of police now providing that direct link and the seniority of the people involved.
Going to the question of the advisory councils, when the Chief Minister had responsibility for this area, he had inherited from Kate Carnell the organisation we all knew as MACMA, the Ministerial Advisory Council for Multicultural Affairs. That was disbanded when the responsibility for multicultural affairs was transferred from the Chief Minister to Mr Hargreaves, who picked up that responsibility. I had some sympathy at the time with Mr Hargreaves for why he took the step to disband MACMA, but I think he took the step for the wrong reasons. Because of the internal ructions and the tensions within the advisory council at that stage, it seemed in his view that the best way to resolve the issue—it is still an ongoing issue—was to disband the council entirely.
The view is that that was probably not a good idea. I notice that there is still a clamouring for the reinstatement of the advisory council. I believe that that should be the case. I believe that the minister responsible for multicultural affairs needs to have that council restored and working with him and with the officer responsible in that area.
Perhaps to get over the problems that existed in the past, this is what the opposition would recommend: the advisory council should be made up of four, five or possibly six appointed and elected members from across the spectrum of the multicultural and ethnic groups and communities. Instead of them representing various communities and being appointed by communities, they should simply perform functional positions in that council. For example, the six people selected might head up functional areas such as the organisational aspects of community management, the social aspects of community management, the running of events and the festival itself, perhaps refugee assistance and finally, and most importantly, harmony issues. You would select people who were capable of managing some of those areas on behalf of the broader community and offering advice to the minister and to the CEO. There would be no reason why each of those six members could not run six subcommittees to assist in the planning and running of some of those sorts of affairs. I really think that is missing at the moment in the overall management from a government perspective.
The fourth issue I want to address is the amount of space available in the multicultural centre. I would have preferred to have seen a couple of years ago a multicultural centre which was slightly different in shape and perhaps a stand-alone building with a lot more parking et cetera. However, the building that is currently being used certainly suits the purpose. It is more than adequate, but the problem is that the government has slowly transferred a number of the elements of the Office of Multicultural Affairs into that building.
When I questioned the minister during estimates on that matter, I was advised that this was a good idea because it meant that the Office of Multicultural Affairs would be in closer liaison with the various communities, sitting cheek by jowl with them. I do not
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