Page 4823 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 27 November 2018
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language communities, both things this government promised to improve as part of its first action plan. Ms Stephen-Smith, the then Minister for Multicultural Affairs, amended the motion which was then passed.
The motion called on this government to provide an update on the implementation of the multicultural framework in a ministerial statement no later than the last sitting day of 2018. It also stated that this update should include which actions and outcomes have been fully achieved and when, which actions and outcomes are in progress, and which actions and outcomes have not been progressed, the reasons for any delay and projected completion dates.
In his update just now Minister Steel noted that the government committed to deliver 28 actions under three main objectives, I think I am safe in saying that having listened to the minister’s update today no-one in this chamber would know better than we did first thing this morning which actions and outcomes have been fully achieved and when, which actions and outcomes are in progress, and which actions and outcomes have not been progressed, the reasons for any delay or projected completion dates.
I am happy to hear that the Canberra Institute of Technology is now offering training to become an accredited interpreter. This appears to be a new development. When I asked the former Minister for Multicultural Affairs less than four months ago what courses in the ACT were endorsed by the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters she responded to my question on notice by referring me to the authority’s website without providing more information. So I cannot be 100 per cent certain if this is a new development.
More to the point, no-one yet knows whether this government has kept its commitment to our multicultural communities to identify and support suitable people willing to undertake accreditation as formal interpreters to build a large pool of local interpreters, particularly in those languages for new and emerging multicultural community groups—a quote taken directly from the multicultural framework—and, if so, how many and in what languages. Nor do we know if any of this is in progress, the reasons for any delay or when we can expect to see results.
In short, what we heard just now was an update that is long on nice platitudes but short on any updating. It is certainly not the detailed and frank assessment this Assembly unitedly called upon the government to provide. This raises the obvious question: is this government hiding something or is it not competent enough to follow up on the reporting called for in a unanimously supported motion? Either choice suggests some kind of failure when it comes to keeping commitments with the multicultural community.
I am sorely disappointed that the minister would respond to the expectations of culturally linguistically diverse Canberrans in this way. A pat on the head and a smiling assurance that this government is “doing very well, thank you” is not the detailed or honest information that our community wants or needs to hear.
This is not what this Assembly agreed to in August. This is a snub to multicultural communities and makes a joke of the whole motion process in this Assembly. This
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