The vocal support for the Greek language, aged care workers, multicultural media and South Melbourne football icons were expressed by the nation’s multicultural minister on Thursday.

The Albanese government stated “extraordinary interest” in the call for submissions into its multicultural framework review which closed last month.

At a multicultural press conference, minister for multicultural affairs Andrew Giles shared insights into the public submissions.
“We have more than 800 submissions, of which more than 15 per cent were in various languages.

“Some of the concerns raised included employment, language services, the visa system, discrimination and experiences of racism,” Giles said.

The minister said additional issues raised were “questions of grants and other funding opportunities and education was a high.”

The submissions now go to the Australian multicultural council, which will “confirm preliminary findings.” Recommendations to the government will be provided in March 2024.

Independent Multicultural Media Australia (IMMA) also submitted and asked the minister if he has discussed with the minister for communications Michelle Rowland on how to support independent multicultural media as public interest journalism.

“Definitely,” said Giles, adding that he wouldn’t know if “it’s a key feature of the strategy” as he did not “want to pre-empt that announcement.”

“One of the key messages that I took away from the pandemic was the critical role of multicultural media in reaching audiences that either government information directly or mainstream media don’t reach.

“In a society like ours, it’s essential that everyone can access important information on their terms, not according to some one-size-fits-all template,” minister Giles said.

The minister said that independent multicultural media are critical in crises like COVID-19 and when “discord or conflict in the world touches Australians.”

“Right now, where the conflict in the Middle East has a direct connection to hundreds of thousands of Australians, we’ve got to make sure that we have regard to the sustainability of the [independent multicultural media] sector.

“We believe in a vibrant and independent multicultural media, and we need to find mechanisms that support that sector in a way that is neutral in expressing preferences for particular outlets or forms of media communication,” the minister said.

Giles said that while SBS does an “excellent job, it will not and cannot cover the field,” there needs to be a role for multicultural media diversity.

He also emphasised the “passion” that the minister for communications Michelle Rowland had for multicultural media.

“This is something that we are very focused on as a government, and I’m confident through the people on this call, [multicultural media] we will be held to account for our work in this area,” Giles added.

“We believe in a vibrant and independent multicultural media, and we need to find mechanisms that support that sector in a way that is neutral in expressing preferences for particular outlets or forms of media communication,” the Minister said.

Greek in danger at Macquarie University

Neos Kosmos raised the issue of Modern Greek at Macquarie University, which is in danger of being cut. The minister was unaware of the issue but highlighted the success of the Greek community’s lobbying to save Latrobe University’s Greek department.

“As a local MP, I engaged in the debate around the proposals that Latrobe University had some years ago about scrapping its Greek language, as well as Hindi and Indonesian. “I was very pleased that the community came together with my good friend Ged Kearney, and we were able to persuade the university not to go ahead,” Giles said.

The minister said he was “concerned about anything which shuts down access to widely spoken languages.”

“Language is fundamental to culture, and I was discussing this at the Glendi Festival in Oakleigh on Sunday; I’m very concerned about retention of language across all of our multicultural communities because once the language is lost, it’s hard to get it back,” Minister Giles said.

He had witnessed languages “lost in some post-war communities, that were widely spoken in Australia 20 or 30 years ago.”

“We see them almost disappearing from the VCE Year 12 syllabus, a concerning marker. It’s a concerning marker, in and of itself, but it also means that people lose their connection to culture,” Giles said. The minister added that he will “look into the issue at Macquarie”.

Bilingual care for the ageing

Italian newspaper Il Globo questioned bilingual personnel in aged care, an area of significant need for Greek and Italian communities.
The minister said that the shortage of aged care workers is a concern in the Greek community, where this issue first ran, which is “an issue that we’re facing across the society”.

It was a significant issue in the Greek community, with few Greek speakers. Because, of course, we know that as people age, their preference is for their birth language,” Giles added.

He said Labor wants to ensure a relevant aged care workforce that “meets the needs of older Australians.”

“We’ve embarked upon the aged care labour agreement pass, and while that’s not specifically targeted at engaging people with those language skills, it has been a feature of discussions with those providers who serve multicultural communities.

“I know that in both the Greek and Italian community there’s been robust engagement around these challenges,” Giles said, adding that “it’s an issue that affects all of our older wave of migrant communities and will affect every migrant community.”

He added that it is a reason why maintaining languages is “fundamentally important.”

We all love Ange

Neos Kosmos also asked how the minister feels about having two former South Melbourne Hellas luminaries, now coaching major European football teams, Ange Postecoglou for Tottenham Hotspur, and Michael Valkanis for Ajax, in the Netherlands.

“We are all supporters of Postecoglou, mainly because he is also a Carlton supporter,” quipped the minister.