Page 4821 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 27 November 2018
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
advance the lives of members of Canberra’s multicultural community. Members from Canberra’s community sector include culturally and linguistically diverse communities and they were invited to provide input to the future of education conversation this year which has led to the publication of the future of education strategy.
As our community continues to grow and diversify it is vital that we encourage cross-cultural and interfaith exchanges. These interactions break down barriers and clarify misunderstandings about people from cultural, religious and linguistic backgrounds that may be different from their own.
Canberra’s diversity is exhibited through many events and celebrations such as the Diwali Festival of Light just passed, the World Curry Festival, Ramadan, Chinese Lunar New Year, the National Multicultural Festival, to name a few. All these celebrations promote interfaith and cross-cultural dialogue between people who are practising those cultures and people who are learning about them.
The Theo Notaras Multicultural Centre serves as a venue for multicultural organisations and cultural groups to support their respective members throughout the year. It is home to Muslim prayers on Fridays and the Chinese Seniors Group as well as the Tongan Language School, Italian choir, English language classes and a multicultural youth centre, to name a few.
The last objective of the multicultural framework is about capitalising on the benefits of cultural diversity. It has two current actions. One is to ensure that older people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds enjoy a high quality of life including that their physical health and social wellbeing are supported through our service delivery system. The office for seniors and veterans, through the Ministerial Advisory Council on Ageing, disseminates information and encourages aged care facilities to embed good practices to ensure that all older Canberrans receive care that is respectful and culturally appropriate.
Canberra is growing its international partnerships including the recent commencement of two international flights into and from areas where many people from our city lived. We have our city relationship with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan, cities that we will continue to build relationships with, as well as with Dili in the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste and with Hangzhou in China, all of which indicate growing partnerships in government, business and culture. I believe that members of Canberra’s multicultural community have been great ambassadors in presenting our city to their relatives and friends from their countries of origin as well as to other countries.
The achievements made to deliver on the multicultural framework speak not only to the commitment of the ACT government but also to the wealth of expertise, wisdom and values that our migrant communities bring to Canberra. The objectives of the multicultural framework could not have been achieved without coordinated and cooperative implementation across ACT government directorates and the community.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video