The President of the Greek Community of Melbourne (GCM), Bill Papastergiadis, was invited by Prime Minister Scott Morrison to participate in a meeting with the Acting Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs, Alan Tudge, Assistant Minister for Customs, Community Safety and Multicultural Affairs, Jason Wood, and various community leaders, on Friday 23 October.

Mr Tudge said “some of the feedback we’ve had from these forums (with community leaders) has directly led to the policy changes which we have made. In particular, I reflect on a few things which I have put in place following the forums that I’ve held. Such as putting religious leaders, for example, on the exemption list at the border so that they can come in more readily, because they’ve been so important during the pandemic. Such as addressing some of the visa application charge issues which we can discuss further. Also in terms of really getting going on this anti-racism campaign, which many of you have raised directly with me as well, which I think has been quite effective in terms of how we’ve done that.”

He emphasised the doubling of permanent visa numbers and the free English classes for any migrant regardless of when they arrived in Australia.

READ MORE: GCM President Bill Papastergiadis discusses the Budget with Acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge

 

Prime Minister Morrison especially commended the Chinese community for quarantining during the early parts of the COVID-19 crisis, and he appreciated the leadership shown by all of the community leaders.

He said Australia has done better than most countries and that during this crisis this Government has tried to engage more with the communities and pointed to more than 8,000 engagements with various communities.

“We are a multicultural country and we live together harmoniously. Australia will come out of this crisis better than most other countries,” he said.

READ MORE: Greek Australian communities rally for those devastated in Greece

Mr Morrison said that Australia is the multicultural capital of the world and said that the government knows that ethnic businesses are the most entrepreneurial.

“Australia is the multicultural capital in the world,” he said, while adding his confidence that a vaccine will soon be produced and passed through Australia by October 2021.

On his part, Mr Wood stated that there will be programs to help with islamophobia, he said that one third of the $62m social cohesion program will be allocated towards, amongst other things, these types of initiatives.