February 2010
Multicultural Affairs and Settlement Services Parliamentary Secretary, the Hon Laurie Ferguson MP: Q&A session notes.
• The first ever Jewish person he had knowingly met was at university.
• He discussed the Scanlon Foundation’s recent ‘Mapping Social Cohesion’ survey – highlighting some of the positive and negative statistics.
• He mentioned the make-up of the government’s migrant intake, noting that the Government increased the humanitarian intake to 13,750. He stated that in recent years the refugee intake has had an even distribution between the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
• He emphasised that Australia is seen as a successful model of multiculturalism and migrant settlement by world leaders and agencies.
• From his portfolio’s perspective, some of the challenges to Australia include (a) responding to the needs of those from the newer migrant groups, and (b) dealing with refugees who have experienced trauma.
• While he supports interfaith initiatives, we must go beyond preaching to the converted. We must reach out to the wider community, including to engage with broader Australia.
• Even though he had a Catholic school upbringing, he is a strong proponent of the public school system.
• In principle he would be supportive of a multicultural subject in school but we must consider those who would oppose such a move – how it was implemented would be important.
• He will look into what determines which religions are specifically stated in the Census (as opposed to falling into the category of ‘other’). He conceded that the omission of the ‘Jewish’ option may reduce the actual number of Jews identifying as Jewish in the Census, thereby impacting on issues like funding. However he did emphasise that Census numbers would not impact the funding from his department.
• He talked about the fact that the school English as a Second Language (ESL) programmes are now being administered by States – this causes inconsistencies.
• He emphasised that while there have been racist attacks in Australia, including against Indians, the recent, much publicised attacks have not indicated a shift in Australian attitudes on the issue of race. There has been evidence that some of the recent attacks clearly do not fall under the category of racist attacks.
• He discussed the Scanlon Foundation’s recent ‘Mapping Social Cohesion’ survey – highlighting some of the positive and negative statistics.
• He mentioned the make-up of the government’s migrant intake, noting that the Government increased the humanitarian intake to 13,750. He stated that in recent years the refugee intake has had an even distribution between the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
• He emphasised that Australia is seen as a successful model of multiculturalism and migrant settlement by world leaders and agencies.
• From his portfolio’s perspective, some of the challenges to Australia include (a) responding to the needs of those from the newer migrant groups, and (b) dealing with refugees who have experienced trauma.
• While he supports interfaith initiatives, we must go beyond preaching to the converted. We must reach out to the wider community, including to engage with broader Australia.
• Even though he had a Catholic school upbringing, he is a strong proponent of the public school system.
• In principle he would be supportive of a multicultural subject in school but we must consider those who would oppose such a move – how it was implemented would be important.
• He will look into what determines which religions are specifically stated in the Census (as opposed to falling into the category of ‘other’). He conceded that the omission of the ‘Jewish’ option may reduce the actual number of Jews identifying as Jewish in the Census, thereby impacting on issues like funding. However he did emphasise that Census numbers would not impact the funding from his department.
• He talked about the fact that the school English as a Second Language (ESL) programmes are now being administered by States – this causes inconsistencies.
• He emphasised that while there have been racist attacks in Australia, including against Indians, the recent, much publicised attacks have not indicated a shift in Australian attitudes on the issue of race. There has been evidence that some of the recent attacks clearly do not fall under the category of racist attacks.
