Page 3411 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 22 October 2014
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I hope the minister will take these considerations seriously and, indeed, address other avenues for promoting harmony and the value of many multicultural and faith communities in the ACT. One of the reasons for our great success in multiculturalism is that in the ACT it has been a multi-party supported idea, and long may that continue.
DR BOURKE (Ginninderra) (10.14): I move:
Omit paragraph (1)(b), substitute:
“(b) 50 or more countries of birth represented, including over 13 000 from England, 6000 from China, 5000 from India, 4000 from New Zealand and almost 3000 from Vietnam;”.
I thank Mrs Jones for bringing this motion here today—and I rise to speak in support of it—because here in Canberra we value multiculturalism; we cherish it. We have more than 40 per cent of Canberra residents either born overseas or with a parent born overseas. There are 150 different languages spoken in our homes. Over 250,000 people come out onto the streets of Canberra to celebrate the National Multicultural Festival. Goodness me, that is nearly two-thirds or more than two-thirds of the Canberra population. That is astonishing. Not only do we respect and enjoy multicultural harmony, we are delighted to celebrate our diversity.
The reason I have brought this amendment is merely for the sake of accuracy, because a nationality refers to your citizenship, and many of the people whose countries of birth are referred to in Mrs Jones’s motion will probably already become Australian citizens. Also for the sake of clarity I have included those migrants from England and New Zealand who also do make up a substantial portion of our multicultural community here in Canberra.
I commend the motion to the Assembly and I also acknowledge those prominent members of the multicultural community here with us today.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (10.16): I will be supporting the motion today and the amendment that has been presented. I think there is agreement on the amendment. I acknowledge that it simply fills out and adds further richness to the motion. As Mrs Jones put forth in her motion, we are lucky to live in a very tolerant, accepting and welcoming city, with a rich and diverse society made up of people from many different backgrounds.
The capital region has a long history of accepting newly arrived migrants to Australia and it is worth noting the celebrations of the Snowy River scheme’s 65th anniversary. While the environmental aspects of that project maybe the subject of some debate, the human story is important and the celebrations will have a real focus on the many German, Greek, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, British, Polish and people from the Yugoslav countries who came to the region, many of whom moved to Canberra after the work was complete.
It is also worth noting, however, that much of this migration was under the general banner of the white Australia policy. I say this not to diminish the contribution of
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