Page 2754 - Week 08 - Thursday, 24 August 2006
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The government has tried to dispel these rumours and the multicultural affairs minister has said that he will maintain funding for the coming year. We will have to wait and see whether he puts his money where his mouth is. Any funding cuts to these areas could not be justified, if that is going to be the case, especially if the Stanhope government is serious about its commitment to encouraging a vibrant and active community. Whilst there may well be the usual series of smaller community grants funded programs for the multicultural community, there is little else in the 2006-07 budget that shows any real commitment to cultural diversity under this government. The 2006-07 budget is extremely disappointing in that regard.
It seems that the only major funding commitment the Stanhope government has each year now is through the multicultural festival and associated activities, but we still had the recent scare that the multicultural festival might be cut back from two weeks of celebrations to a single weekend and that the fringe festival might be cut completely. I have heard on the grapevine that the integrity of the festival will be retained, but I have not seen the delivery of that in dollars, I have not seen it in hard copy and I do not think we got clear answers to the questions about that in estimates. Watch this space!
Mr Speaker, there are concerns about a shortage of funding for some of the ethnic community activities. It is important that these communities are funded to at least the levels they have been in the past. There are contributing members of our ethnic community who have put a lot of time and effort into organising multicultural events. I am going to talk about one of those shortly. These people deserve to know exactly where they stand in relation to this government’s plans for managing its finances this year. Some of them are not yet clear about that.
Whilst there may well be a series of smaller community grants funding programs for the multicultural community, there is little that shows any real commitment to diversity. Take, for example, the Australian-Indian Mandir society and the broader Hindu community which last week ran a friendship festival, culminating in a very large event at the racecourse, a major Canberran event which cost that community about $40,000. They tell me that they did not get a single razoo out of this government to contribute to the running of that freedom festival. It cost a lot of money and this community, which is a major ethnic community in Canberra, did not get a single razoo from the government, according to members of the committee when I spoke to them on Sunday afternoon.
If the government has given the community something since Sunday, I would like to hear about it. If the government has not, I would like to know why. Perhaps the minister, in summing up on this line item, will explain why that has been the case and why other like-minded groups would not get a single dollar either. I am concerned that the Stanhope government has not put sufficient funding into those groups and I am concerned that questions remain over the continued funding of core multicultural activities. Not enough funding has been allocated for ethnic group activities and for community education and information.
With respect to education and information, it is important that the government enhance communication with ethnic communities, particularly given the political and security environment in which both this territory and the country find themselves. The relatively small amount of funding provided calls into question this government’s commitment to
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