More than 850 multicultural leaders, changemakers, young and emerging voices, academics and thought leaders from across the country will converge on the Sofitel Melbourne for the long-anticipated FECCA 2022 Advancing Multicultural Australia Conference in Melbourne starting today, Thursday until Friday.

Andrew Giles MP, the Federal Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs will give his first speech as a minister at the opening of the conference and the Governor General of Australia, David Hurley AC will deliver an opening address. Other speakers at the conference opening and plenary session include Dan Tehan MP who is the Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, and Adam Bandt MP, the leader of the Australian Greens.

The event which is co-hosted by the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA) and the Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria ECCV will feature a programme of 100 speakers over the two days.

The conference will begin with an historic session that marks the alliance between First Nations and the multicultural communities in support of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and constitutional recognition of First Peoples.

Prof Megan Davies, the co-chair of the Uluru Dialogue and Juliana Nkrumah AM, the president of the African Women of Australia will present the keynote session on the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

The conference will cover key issues including anti-racism, aged care reform, disability, identity and diversity, inclusive employed and best practice in communications and language services. The keynote session on Systemic Racism and Health will take place 8am to 10.30am on Friday, 17 June while Advancing Multicultural Australia will be held at 3pm on Friday.

Keynote speakers will include Dr Anne Aly MP; Jane Chen, co-founder and CEO of Embrace Global; Behrouz Boochani; Craig Foster AM; Chin Tan, Race Discrimination Commissioner; Nyadol Nyuon, CEO of Harmony Alliance; George Savvides, Chair of SBS; and Ros Spence MP, Victorian Minister for Multicultural Affairs.

A delegation of 150 young people, community leaders and people from refugee backgrounds will attend the conference thanks to donations from the conference scholarship sponsors including strategic partner VicHealth.

For a full conference programme visit the FECCA 2022 conference website on https://www.fecca2022.org.au/