Page 1839 - Week 05 - Thursday, 16 May 2019
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MR STEEL (Murrumbidgee—Minister for City Services, Minister for Community Services and Facilities, Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Minister for Roads) (3.06): Thank you for the opportunity to speak to the ACT multicultural framework 2015-2020 second action plan 2019-2020 in the Assembly today. I am very proud to live in an inclusive, progressive and connected city, a city of great employment and career opportunities and great quality of life, in stunning natural surrounds and with access to world-class facilities. Bringing together a mix of people with varied experiences and backgrounds helps to build a thriving city. It is a source of innovation, supporting our economy, and enhances the social life of our city.
In the ACT we are a community that recognises and embraces, as well as promoting, multiculturalism opportunities to build a socially cohesive and inclusive community for everyone. Understanding both the opportunities and the challenges people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds face when establishing and building a life in Canberra is essential to continuing to build and foster communities where everyone belongs and can participate.
In March this year Canberra formally joined the Welcoming Cities network. This membership strengthens the government’s commitment to social inclusion, extending to all cultures, races, genders, sexualities and ages, and mirrors the government’s commitment to providing support to new migrants and to people arriving on humanitarian grounds or seeking asylum in Canberra.
The ACT multicultural framework second action plan will help to enhance and grow our vibrant city. The first action plan under the framework has delivered better outcomes for our multicultural communities. Since 2015 the ACT multicultural framework has been guiding our vision for an inclusive and cohesive Canberra. The framework was originally developed through an extensive community consultation process. The first action plan consisted of 28 actions and was completed in 2018. All 28 actions have been progressed, and work is continuing to ensure that the intent of each action continues to be realised.
I am very pleased to share four of the completed actions from the first action plan. On 18 June 2015 the ACT was declared a refugee welcome zone. In June 2018 the diversity register was launched, enabling boards and committees to strengthen their appointment processes to identify candidates who represent our diverse community. The ACT language services policy was finalised in November 2018, ensuring that all Canberrans who communicate in a language other than English have equitable access to ACT government services and programs. The successful work experience and support program, the WESP, continues to be a hugely successful program in providing on-the-job experience supported by training at CIT.
A closure report detailing the achievements of the first action plan will be published on the Community Services Directorate website in the coming weeks, in line with the commencement of the second action plan. To ensure that community members could contribute to this new plan, consultation on the action plan commenced in 2018. We encouraged all community members, especially those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, to contribute to the conversation about the future of Canberra as a diverse and inclusive city.
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