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Greeks not on boards. Where are they?

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8 Jul 2009

A friend raised an interesting point with me last week which I would like to publically raise.

Take a look, a good look, at how few Australians of non-English speaking backgrounds there are on a range of boards.

In fact, looking at all of the appointment to Boards this year I find it striking how few were representing the community.

What was even more striking was the fact that even fewer were Greek.

We no longer have a Greek serving on the Victorian Multicultural Commission.

The Chairperson does not count because he is there to help every community.

In a country where there are up to 590,000 people of Greek descent, it is pathetic that not one Greek was deemed good enough by the Victorian Minister for Multiculturalism, Mr John Brumby, to be appointed to the Commission.

It is good that my late Athenian mother is not here to see this or she would throw a real tantrum at Brumby.

Have we done something wrong? Or is it that we are no longer regarded as important as the newer ethnic communities, because we do not whine, demand or throw tantrums in the middle of the city...

What are our so called Greek Aussie MPs on both sides doing about this. Could they be more useless?

What i want to know is whether any Greek Australian MP is willing or able to defend Mr Brumby on this matter?

Matthew Blaine, Ascot Vale, Victoria

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I must agree whole heartedly. And even more so when I read in other media that at the ALP National Conference they have agreed to put union reps on boards, advisory bodies... etc. For years and years we have been waiting for real appointments of ethnic Australians to government boards. yet despite a policy being set when Kick Bolkus was the federal minister well over a decade plus ago, there has been less progress than you see in a race between snails. To be blunt, the fault is our own. Unless we scream blue bloody murder and demand of both sides of politics we will continue to be neglected, ignored, used and abused by those who regard our vote as a forlorn conclusion.

Submitted by atkenos on Sat, 2009-08-01 17:36.

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