Page 2433 - Week 07 - Thursday, 4 August 2022

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The Assembly voted—

Amendment agreed to.

Original question, as amended, resolved in the affirmative.

Multicultural communities—data collection

MR BRADDOCK (Yerrabi) (4.19): I move:

That this Assembly:

(1) notes:

(a) diversity should be reflected in all aspects of public life;

(b) that meaningful, evidence-based data collection practices are an important tool to expose potential discrimination and inequalities, and help us to make our city a better place for all Canberrans;

(c) in June 2022, new Immigration Minister, Andrew Giles MP, said “Australia does not effectively measure our diversity”, and that Australia’s failure to collect data on ethnicity or race—unlike the United States, Canada and New Zealand—was a “fundamental barrier to understanding the issues that face multicultural Australians”;

(d) while the ACT Government collects data about Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) representation in the ACT Public Service (ACTPS), the ACT’s diversity data collection reflects these national issues;

(e) the Federal Government is establishing a CALD data collection working group with representatives from peak multicultural bodies, along with data collection and demography experts to develop national standards for diversity data collection to address the gaps and shortfalls of current practices; and

(f) while the ACTPS policy and recruitment guidelines include the use of targeted recruitment strategies to encourage diversity, there are disparities in practice across the directorates, including whether CALD applicants are encouraged to apply; and

(2) calls on the Government to:

(a) monitor, and if appropriate, contribute to and apply, national standards for diversity data collection;

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