Page 3414 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 22 October 2014
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These principles are now ingrained in the ACT government’s policy and legislative capacity through key themes, including human rights, access and equity, ageing and aged-care services, cultural and religious acceptance, language policy, and leadership and governance.
The government’s commitment to ensuring that Canberra remains a positive, multicultural and vibrant city was recently recognised by the OECD in naming us the world’s most livable city. This is no accident. We have taken a strong leadership role in multicultural affairs and human rights protection. We actively focus on the democratic values of participation, inclusion, fairness and justice; and on ensuring that all Canberrans understand that their rights in our society come with responsibilities.
Whilst our nation faces significant racial tension, our difficulties have been relatively low key and have allowed us to experience long-term social stability. The community response to the trashing of the Canberra Islamic Centre in Monash earlier this year was an important sign of positive relationships in our community. Regardless of faith and background, Canberra stood as one and said that that behaviour was unacceptable for our city. However, we cannot be complacent when it comes to building and maintaining social cohesion, combating racism and directly addressing any community tensions that may arise. We will continue to focus our efforts on those groups that experience lower levels of social cohesion, with strategies to build trust, civic engagement, community resilience and a positive culture of hope, reward and opportunity.
We celebrate and observe a number of events of great significance on our ACT multicultural calendar, including Ramadan, Diwali, the Buddhist New Year, the Global Cricket Challenge, Harmony Day, World Refugee Day and the forthcoming Multicultural Summit.
I cannot let this moment pass without mentioning one of Canberra’s most loved events, and that is the National Multicultural Festival. The significant attendance at the event in 2014, in February of this year, and certainly in years gone by, is an affirmation of how much our city values and respects people from all cultural backgrounds and loves coming together to celebrate and enjoy learning about other traditions and cultures.
We also maintain a grassroots community approach throughout the year in supporting and promoting a wide range of multicultural, socially inclusive and participatory programs and activities, such as the weekly Chinese seniors social gatherings, Muslim prayers each Friday, and the observance of orthodox Christian and other religious faith events.
We also support hundreds of non-government groups to undertake projects in our community through the annual participation, or multicultural, grants program that highlights and promotes the benefits of cultural diversity and social harmony in our city. This year 142 applicants shared in the available $260,000 that was granted under the program.
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