Page 2546 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 1 August 2018

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(iii) ensure that all can benefit from our rich and vibrant cultural diversity;

(2) further notes:

(a) that the Multicultural Framework’s first Multicultural Action Plan includes actions and outcomes to be achieved during 2015–2018;

(b) that the Multicultural Framework states that “progress on the first Multicultural Action Plan (2015–18) will be reviewed and a second ACT Multicultural Action Plan (2018–20) will be developed”;

(c) that the Minister for Multicultural Affairs annually tables a statement intended to “detail activities and efforts undertaken on practical efforts and outcomes in relation to the Framework”; and

(d) that, as noted in previous ministerial statements, a number of actions and outcomes from the Framework’s first action plan have not yet been fully achieved; and

(3) calls on the Government to:

(a) ensure that the 2018 ministerial statement provides a candid and detailed reporting on each and every action and outcome from all three years of the first ACT Multicultural Action Plan as listed in the “ACT Multicultural Framework 2015–2020”;

(b) to include in this reporting, amongst other things:

(i) which actions and outcomes have been fully achieved and when;

(ii) which actions and outcomes are in progress, what specific steps have been taken to achieve this progress and by whom, what steps still need to be completed, what obstacles and challenges have been encountered, and what the projected completion dates are; and

(iii) which actions and outcomes have not been progressed yet, reasons behind the delays (including what obstacles and challenges have been encountered), and projected completion dates;

(d) update the Assembly on what is happening with the development of the second ACT Multicultural Action Plan (2018–2020) and when this plan should be finalised.

I am pleased to move this motion today and to address this very important topic. In doing so, I speak on behalf of tens of thousands of culturally and linguistically diverse Canberrans. As I have pointed out a number of times in this place, Canberra is a wonderfully multicultural city. Thirty-two per cent of us were born overseas, according to the 2016 census, and more than half of us have at least one parent who was born overseas. And these numbers appear to be increasing.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ latest migration report, the number of arrivals of overseas migrants to the ACT in the 2016-17 financial year was the highest ever recorded, 3,960 people. Nearly two-thirds of these were students on temporary visas. But many of them will have arrived with hopes of qualifying for permanent residency at some point, and others who never previously considered that

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