Page 3704 - Week 10 - Thursday, 14 September 2017
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participation support through a new job brokering service. This commitment builds on existing initiatives and previous pilots.
In particular, the ACT government’s ongoing work experience support program—WESP—is worth celebrating. In 2016-17 it enabled 30 people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds to improve their workplace skills and undertake work experience in an ACT government directorate. On completion of their work experience, participants receive a nationally recognised certificate II in business from the Canberra Institute of Technology.
The achievements made so far against the multicultural framework are significant. While we have progressed well, there are three actions under the 2015-16 action plan that are still in progress and will be completed over the coming months.
The online register for people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds interested in serving on ACT boards and committees will be combined with the ACT women’s register to become a single online diversity register by the end of 2017. The ACT languages policy is currently being revised to reflect good policy and practice regarding the use of interpreters, multilingual staff and translated material from other states and territories and to ensure consistency across jurisdictions. The updated policy is expected by the end of 2017.
Finally, while the online multicultural directory is operational, the development of an online calendar has required further consultation across government to assess the feasibility of including government facilities and school halls that may be available for use by multicultural community groups. Funding has been committed for the online calendar, with development commencing by the end of 2017, once the online venue booking system I mentioned earlier has been established.
In addition to sharing the progress made under the ACT multicultural framework, I would like to share with members an update on two related initiatives that further enhance and strengthen the ACT government’s engagement with the multicultural community. It gave me great pleasure yesterday to announce the appointment of multicultural community and representative members to the new ACT Multicultural Advisory Council, a commitment from the parliamentary agreement.
The 15-member council has been appointed for a period of three years from 1 September 2017 and consists of 10 community members and five representative members. The members will ensure that the voices and aspirations of different sectors of the multicultural community are heard. The council will provide members of Canberra’s culturally and linguistically diverse communities with the opportunity to take a leading role in consultation and advocacy efforts on issues that affect their communities.
The council will assist with the implementation of the ACT multicultural framework and convene a multicultural summit in 2018, delivering on another parliamentary agreement commitment. The summit will inform the ongoing commitment by the ACT government to multiculturalism.
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