Both Federal government and the government of New South Wales this week announced allocation of funds to multicultural communities and media to “design and lead grass roots communication activities tailored to meet the needs of their community” in spreading the message on measures to counter the spread of COVID-19.
On Wednesday, NSW Minister for Sport, Multiculturalism, Seniors and Veterans Natalie Ward announced that the state would allocate $4million to ensure that important health measures would reach multicultural communities during the latest COVID-19 outbreak in Sydney’s south west.
Speaking during an online multicultural media conference that included NSW Health Minister Brent Hazzard and Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant, Ms Ward said the state relied on multicultural media to deliver its COVID-19 messages to the wider community and that a $2million NSW Multicultural Media Grants Programme was included to support multicultural media in distributing “trusted and credible public health information to our communities.”
“This is especially important with our non-English speaking communities who depend on these outlets for their news,” Ms Ward said. Under the programme, each multicultural media outlet could apply for a grant of up to $50,000.
The grants programme was in addition to $2million allocated by the state government to deliver messages to the multicultural communities through radio, print and online media during the current period of COVID-19 restrictions.
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“This funding will support the delivery of news and information across traditional print and radio media as well as reaching a wider audience through digital capability,” Mrs Ward said.
The state’s strategy of getting the health message out to the wider community included holding forums with religious and community leaders to share relevant information through their networks within their communities, the NSW minister said.
Earlier this week, Federal Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Services, Alex Hawke, held an online forum with over 100 leaders of Sydney’s multicultural communities to listen to concerns over the latest COVID-19 outbreak in the city.
Mr Hawke said forum participants highlighted issues relating to online information, vaccine hesitancy the importance of communicating to communities in their language and gaining access to government support programmes.
“We are ensuring that all new Government material regarding the evolving COVID-19 situation – including on the vaccination rollout and support packages the government is providing – is distributed to all community organisations, in English and up to 63 community languages,” said Mr Hawke.
He also drew attention to the recent announcement of a federal $1.2 million COVID-19 small grants program to support multicultural community groups in designing and leading grass roots communication activities to meet the needs of their communities.
The minister said the federal government national vaccine campaign had included advertisements in 32 languages on radio, print and online outlets. The basic message being “Stay home. Get tested. Get vaccinated.”
