Colin Brooks the new Victorian Minister for Multicultural Affairs spoke to Neos Kosmos last night at the Greek Centre event in honour of the achievements of Greek Australian VCE students.
The minister said he felt “very privileged to be the new multicultural affairs minister in a re-elected Andrews Labor government.”
“It is a portfolio that embraces all that is great about Victoria, the wonderful diversity of our state in fact, we don’t just tolerate diversity but embrace it. Victorians understand the importance of that diversity,” the minister told Neos Kosmos.
“The Greek community is such an important and large part of that diversity,” Brooks added.
Brooks said that one of the key concerns he had and raised at the end-of-year event for the Victorian Multicultural Commission, was “the rise of extremism.”
He said that the rise of extremism was not just in Victoria, but a phenomenon around the world.
“I think it’s incumbent on elected leaders to lead on this issue and to be a voice for tolerance and diversity and against extremism and as a multicultural minister I will stand up for multicultural communities.”
“I want to make sure that the mainstream view which is in support of multiculturalism is not put in danger by extremists who seek to divide us and preach hate,” Brooks told Neos Kosmos.
“I am delighted that the first sitting day of parliament to come straight here [Greek Centre] to see the best of our multiculturalism, to see young people who have strived to get great results in VCE and in Greek, to see their faces in front of their parents and community elders, has been fantastic.”
“The Greek community feels like a family to me, I have always found it like being part of a family in the Greek community – I feel at home,” Brooks said.
The minister praised his former colleague and former minister in the Bracks Labor government, John Pandazopoulos who was also at the event.
“John has played a major part in my understanding of multicultural affairs in my parliamentary journey, and the Greek community and it’s connections to Victoria.”
Brooks previously joined Pandazopoulos on a delegation to Crete in commemoration of the The Battle of Crete when Australians and Greeks fought the Nazis, which had a profound effect on him.
“The connections between Greeks and Australians are incredible, it is bond forged in blood, as we fought that extremism that always seeks to divide people.”
Minister Colin Brooks then stood for a photo with the president of the Greek Community Bill Papastergiadis, and his former colleague John Pandazopoulos.