Highlights
- ECCV launched State Election Platform 2022 with 55 recommendations from ethnic community representatives of Victoria.
- Strong need felt for aid networks that respond quickly and support ethnic communities during emergencies.
- Multicultural communities want more non-white males in decision-making roles.
A month before Victoria goes to the polls, the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria (ECCV) launched 2022, a list of recommendations by the state's multicultural communities on health and wellbeing, aged care, disability, employment, anti-racism and emergency management for the state government.
Talking to SBS Italian Emiliano Zucchi, CEO of ECCV, explains that this initiative is a full-fledged political document created with the collaboration of more than 80 ethnic community representatives.
These representatives answered a frequently-asked question, 'what are the problems you would like the party that wins the elections to address in the next four years?'
According to ECCV website, the State Election Platform 2022 suggests the Victoria government "to learn from the experiences and systemic gaps exposed during the pandemic and ensure that our diverse communities can respond, rebuild and recover equitably."
"Multicultural communities have pointed out important issues like the need for greater cultural competence in public services and the need to invest in ethno-specific services," Mr Zucchi says.
"With the crisis generated by COVID-19, a strong need for aid networks that can respond quickly to emergencies has emerged," he adds pointing to the need for sharing vital information in different languages.
How do we respond effectively when there is an emergency whether it is COVID, drought, fire or any climatic emergency, without wasting time?
"There must be networks that can respond quickly. We cannot afford to get the message wrong," Mr Zucchi adds.
The ECCV has built strong networks during the pandemic and these networks must be supported, he says.
We need to have networks where we can reach multicultural communities, especially the emerging ones which may not they speak English well because they need more assistance
Another key message of this platform is the need for "involvement and consultation with multicultural communities before new policies are formed by the government."
"Otherwise services are not suitable for everyone," he adds.
This, explains Mr Zucchi, would ensure that when these services are implemented in the communities, the results over time are going to be better.
"It is necessary that the funds for community projects are adequate and continuous. Funds are available, but often not enough and the projects are short-term, for six or 12 months. By the time you start a project, time and funds have already finished" he says.
When working with communities, one of the hurdles is getting access to the people, says Mr Zucchi.
"We spend a lot of time building a relationship of trust with our communities, but if the project is short-term and you need to stop and then for another three or four months there are no funds, people lose faith in what you do," explains Mr Zucchi.
Mr Zucchi explains that there is a common thread that unites all these recommendations.
"We are all Australians. There is no area of society where we don't have to think about multicultural communities. For example, racism. We all have a responsibility to fight it. Racism is not something that is directed only at multicultural communities. It also exists within multicultural communities," he elaborates.
Among the issues that multicultural communities have highlighted through the electoral platform is the need for greater representation of diversity in decision-making roles, Mr Zucchi says.
At the moment what you notice is that the higher you go in the pyramid of society, the more you see white leaders and mostly males
Practical issues also emerged in the ECCV election platform, such as the need for greater investment of resources in the regional areas of Victoria, given that "we know migration is moving towards regional Victoria," emphasises the ECCV chief.
The need for greater support for entrepreneurship was also underlined.
Mr Zucchi explains that the desire to open activities and businesses is widespread among multicultural communities.
But how can this be done? What are the rules? How can we support communities in understanding how the Australian system and bureaucracy works?
The Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria will present the State Election Platform to the community on 20 October at the Brunswick Town Hall in Melbourne in a free event.
Several MPs of Victoria like Sheena Watt (Parliamentary Secretary for Housing, Labor), David Davis (Shadow Treasurer, Liberal), Samantha Ratnam (Leader of the Victorian Greens) and Fiona Patten (Leader of the Reason Party) are expected to attend.
