The NSW minister for multiculturalism and Greek-Australian, Steve Kamper faced a barrage of questions and seemed visibly under pressure during Tuesday’s budget estimates hearing in parliament.
The minister, among other things, was quizzed about the government’s pre-election commitment to support independent multicultural media.
In the run-up to the NSW elections in March last year, Kamper announced that NSW Labor would review the state government’s advertising practices to guarantee increased support for independent multicultural media.
Pre-election promises and unfulfilled commitments
In an SMS message seen by Neos Kosmos, and others in the multicultural media sector, Kamper made a pre-election promise of $2 million for multicultural media, something yet to be honoured. When his office was contacted about the SMS last year by this masthead, they asked to see the message, which was forwarded, but nothing eventuated.
The then-NSW Liberal multicultural minister, Mark Coure made an election promise to double the multicultural advertising spend by the government from 7.5 per cent to 15 per cent if the Liberals were re-elected. However, the careworn NSW Liberal government lost the elections to Labor headed by a youthful Chris Minns as premier.
In Tuesday’s tense budget estimates, the deputy opposition whip in the Legislative Council, Wes Fang, peppered Kamper with a barrage of questions about the multicultural media review. Kamper said that the review had been conducted by the Department of Customer Service (DCS), which sits under the minister, Jihad Dib.
“The Department of Customer Service has undertaken extensive stakeholder engagement so we can get it right,” Kamper said.
Pushed on the review’s outcome, Kamper seemed flustered and suddenly handballed the question to the CEO of Multicultural NSW, Joseph La Posta.
Multicultural media review and stakeholder engagement
La Posta, who appeared more confident about the facts than his minister, confirmed that Multicultural NSW had worked closely with the DCS to ensure “the voices” of multicultural media were “heard and understood.”
“There was a commitment made around reviewing the [advertising] spend to multicultural media, and as the minister [Kamper] said, it was one of the key pillars around trying to boost the investment in that space to ensure the lived experience and blockages that had occurred in communicating with multicultural communities were addressed,” La Posta said.
“The review has since been concluded, and the cabinet has decided. It is a decision for Minister Dib to announce.”
La Posta thanked independent multicultural media for participating in the review and helping the NSW government develop a solution. Independent Multicultural Media Australia (IMMA) has been advocating for the sector since the COVID-19 pandemic and was involved in two DCS meetings and had ongoing conversations with the department.
IMMA, members, including Neos Kosmos, The Greek Herald, La Fiama, Monthly Muktamancha, Turkish News-Press, Indian Link, Persian Herald, Macedonian Weekly, Chinese Herald, (Vietnamese) Sunrise Newspaper, (Arabic) El Telegraph, met formally for two round-table discussions with DCS over the past 18 months. There was another meeting set up last month, which was to be conducted remotely, however once DCS saw the questions to be tabled by IMMA it decided to cancel the meeting and suggested IMMA wait for the cabinet announcement.
Significant progress has yet to be made regardless of much talk, and the NSW government seems intent on disregarding multicultural media, irrespective of the impassioned rhetoric by Kamper at budget estimates about NSW being the most successful multicultural state.
Those few invited to participate in the multicultural media review told Neos Kosmos that it was on workflow and process, and the serious concerns expressed to DCS at lengthy meetings had “become diluted and the narrative lost”, as an IMMA member and participant said.
Fotis Kapetopoulos, the secretary of IMMA and journalist with Neos Kosmos, said it was “surprising that a final decision has been reached by Minister Dib, considering IMMA as an organisation, and I, as its secretary, were not invited to engage in direct consultations with the minister”.
“It was IMMA that advocated for the review and sat around the table twice to voice our concerns, as well as provide much information by email on our situation.”
When Kamper was asked which outlets participated in the review, he resorted to asking La Posta to respond.
The Multicultural NSW CEO said “15 – 20 media” took part. He added about IMMA’s representations to the NSW government around policies implemented by the Victorian government on multicultural media spend.
In July 2023, the Victorian government announced that departments and agencies must spend at least 15 per cent of their campaign media on multicultural media. Then, in December last year, the Victorian government announced support for multicultural press across the state with grants of up to $25,000 through the 2023-24 Multicultural Media Grants Program.
Challenges and advocacy for multicultural media
In what can be described as a grilling in budget estimates, Kamper said he was aware of concerns by independent multicultural media.
“Their concerns are around dealing with content they had to introduce to communities, but they weren’t getting paid for it,” he said.
“They [IMMA] called for a greater percentage of spend to multicultural media groups. They wanted 15 per cent of overall media spend going to multicultural media groups.”
However, IMMA’s secretary said Kamper depicted the 15 per cent advertising spend as the association’s core request, which is inaccurate and needs to be revised.
Kapetopoulos said IMMA merely cited the Victorian government’s position as a “model”. He added that Victoria’s advertising spending was increased to 15 per cent, excluding translation services and expenditure with government funded SBS.
“IMMA presented Victoria to the NSW government only as an example of what can be done to support multicultural media, we never pushed NSW to commit to 15 per cent.
“We sought support across a range of areas, including increased advertising. The sort of support that regional and mainstream media received,” Kapetopoulos said.
Kapetopoulos praised the Multicultural NSW CEO, La Posta, as being “better versed” on the details of IMMA conversations with DCS than his minister, Kamper. After two round table meetings with DCS, initiated by IMMA’s and Multicultural NSW’s advocacy, there was consultation by DCS, yet it still needed to include an official approach to IMMA.
“IMMA is keen to see independent multicultural media take a more prominent position and have more advocacy from the Minister for Multiculturalism,” he said.
Dimitra Skalkos, the publisher of The Greek Herald, said the NSW government’s “disregard for multicultural media is disappointing given the state’s continued emphasis on its multicultural fabric and its substantial support to regional media by contrast.”
In early 2023, the NSW government pledged $3 million annually towards regional newspaper advertising, with nothing similar offered to the multicultural press.
The publisher said it was a “critical time for multicultural media and all media in Australia.”
“It is a reality that soon many of these titles that work with communities and have served them will be taken away due to a lack of attention and follow through from NSW government, particularly when compared to Victoria,” Skalkos added.
The NSW government recognised the multicultural media’s role during the COVID-19 pandemic and quickly realised their approach to this sector needed improvement.
She also pointed to the comments of premier Minns, who had recently said in a public statement that multicultural media” work for free” and offer a vital public service.
“Given record immigration this year, NSW and Victoria face an unexpected wave of new multicultural communities. However, Victoria is taking steps to deal with this by supporting multicultural media outlets.
“NSW risks having information deserts within multicultural communities as mainstream media will not broadly cover community-specific topics of interest in a culturally nuanced manner,” Skalkos said.
The secretary of IMMA, Kapetopoulos, said he was “surprised” by what seemed to be the multicultural minister’s lack of detailed awareness of the issues and conversations had between IMMA and the NSW government at the Budget Estimates.
“The opposition was robust in its questioning, and it seems the minister was surprised; however, that is the nature of Budget Estimates.
“I have been talking to the former and current government for over a year, and that is what makes it so surprising to see the minister [Kamper] for multiculturalism, in one of the most diverse states in Australia, confused during budget estimates over such a crucial issue.
“Independent multicultural media is essential public interest journalism; during COVID-19, we were front-line in helping communities stay safe, and we suffered from a lack of advertising while governments fed foreign digital media companies.
“Independent multicultural media should be supported on a bipartisan level, IMMA members are the voice of and for NSW multicultural communities,” added Kapetopoulos
