"THE ROLE OF THE MULTICULTURAL SECTOR IN HEALTH SERVICES"

A Speech by Sam Afra, Chairperson,

Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria (ECCV)

DHS Cultural Diversity Forum - 20 March 2008 http://eccv.org.au/doc/SamAfraDHSSpeech.pdf

ECCV Annual General Meeting 27 November 2007,

Special Guest Speaker - Tom Calma

On 27 November, National Race Discrimination Commissioner and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Tom Calma, delivered  the following speech to the Annual General Meeting of the  Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria. Commissioner Calma spoke about the continuing struggle , some 40 years after the 1967 Referendum,  to improve the rights and living conditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples . He also spoke about the future of multiculturalism and the need for a policy framework  that ensures that the rights of people from racially and culturally  diverse backgrounds  are upheld.  Follow the attached link to view the speach http://eccv.org.au/doc/ECCVSPEECHTOMCALMA27NOV.pdf

On 22 August, Spectrum Migrant Resource Centre in association with the Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria hosted the second Victorian Immigration and Settlement Conference at the Park Hyatt Hotel. The attached link is to the speech delivered by ECCV Deputy Chairperson Voula Messimeri.http://eccv.org.au/doc/Multiculturalism.pdf

FECCA CONGRESS - Hobart, July 31 2007
In Defence of an Inclusive Citizenship,
A Speech on the Changes to Australia’s Citizenship Laws
by Peter van Vliet Executive Officer, Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria http://eccv.org.au/doc/FECCASPEECH.pdf

Ethnic Seniors Fair Go for Pensioners Rally
State Library Victoria May 31
Delivered by Phong Nguyen, Chairperson

The Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria has long been concerned about the rising cost of living for pensioners. We are pleased to be here today as part of the campaign for a fair go for our pensioners. For our ethnic pensioners many did not have the opportunity to build superannuation nest eggs.

Many of you helped build this great city of Melbourne and great State of Victoria. Many helped supply our goods and services as our post-war economy has boomed. But in your retirement many of you are now forced to rely on an insufficient pension. Nearly 40% of Australians receiving the pension were born overseas and this figure is rising. We are also fairly sure that more overseas born pensioners are on a full pension when compared to the Australian born older population.

Many full pensioners are struggling to make ends meet due to rising costs which are above CPI in areas like public transport, food, utilities and health care.These costs are rising above the pension levels which is linked to an aggregate consumer price index and average male weekly earnings. We know that health and pharmaceutical costs have increased by more than twice the inflation or CPI rate since 1990. And we know that seniors are big users of health and pharmaceutical services. $262 a week, or $219 a week each if you are a couple is simply not enough to live on with these rising transport, health care, household services and utilities costs.

While pensioners appreciate greatly the one-off $500 payment in the 2007 Commonwealth Budget this is still only a one-off payment. It is not guaranteed into the future.The reality of a pension rate that is too low remains. 25% of average male weekly earnings is no longer enough, particularly with the widespread prosperity enjoyed by others in the community today.

Further when the Victorian State Government took away the $80 pensioner motor vehicle full concession in 2004, many pensioners feel they were not adequately compensated. Most of the savings from this measure went to younger families, students and health care card holders.Pensioners only received an increase in local government rates concessions which was not as great as the lost motor vehicle concession amount.

The maximum pensioner rates concession of $168 is now far too low given that average property rates are now over $1,000 in Victoria. Research by Gavin Dufty at St Vincent de Paul has shown that for pensioners renting in the private rental market and using public transport the cost of living has gone up at a much higher rate than the pension has increased. He says that pensioners renting their homes and using public transport have seen increases in the cost of living at 30% greater than the inflation rate. So the value of their pension has decreased for many in the last ten years.

Even though the federal government is telling us pensions have increased against the CPI, the spending patterns of pensioners which are greater in areas like health and household services tells us otherwise. You all know from your experience and being here today that the pension level is too low.

In the future more Australians will have the chance to save for their retirement through superannuation. But today our pensioners demand a just pension rate. They demand what is reasonable and fair. They are sick of seeing their real income decline among greater levels of prosperity in the wider community.

ECCV calls on the Federal Government and the Federal Opposition to tell us how they are going to improve the pension rates before the federal election.
We call on the State Government to review aged pensioner concession rates. We call on them to respond to the statement of claims that has been drawn up by ethnic and other pensioners.

Our seniors deserve better. They deserve a decent standard of living.  Thank You for your time today.

ECCV Signing of the Community Accord
Speech at Queen’s Hall, Parliament House, Melbourne
21 March, 2007
Delivered by Phong Nguyen, Chairperson

First may I begin by paying my respect to the traditional owners of the land—the Kulin Nation—and their elders past and present.

I would also like to acknowledge the Minister Assisting the Premier on Multicultural Affairs, Daniel Andrews. We know you have made a flying start in your new portfolio and we welcome you at our first event together.

Thank you also to our VMC Chairperson, George Lekakis, a tireless champion for multicultural communities.

And welcome to all of our Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria members, friends and staff who have joined us here today to sign the community accord.

We have had a busy time at the ECCV over the past few weeks with the recent launch of our new look aged care publication in Carlton, and our regional migration kit in Ballarat. Tonight we also launch our Australia-Africa Democracy Project at the Carlton Housing Commission Flats. In fact in the last month we have launched everything but a rocket!

Thanks to our Executive Officer Peter van Vliet and the staff at ECCV for the great work they have been doing for our membership and our wider community.

Today is the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

This stems from the International Covenant on the Elimination of all forms of racial Discrimination, which was enacted by the United Nations in 1965 and was ratified by Australia in 1975.

This is one of the great body of instruments of the United Nations that seeks to protect the human rights of people around the globe. These important instruments include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

As we see a rise of tension around our globe due to recent world events, these human rights have become more important than ever.

And in Victoria we are most pleased that we have a State Government that is committed to protecting the rights of minority communities and is not afraid to champion multiculturalism and the great benefits it has brought to our state: Economic, social and cultural benefits.

Unfortunately at the federal level we now have proposed changes to citizenship laws in the form of a higher level English test. This may make it hard for many new migrants to become citizens. As Petro Georgiou, MP, has said these new laws fail the ‘fair go’ test.

Removing the word multicultural affairs from the Federal Government’s list of ministries also gives the impression of a government that does not support our great cultural diversity.

But enough of that! Today we celebrate the great things happening in Victoria and the great community harmony we have fostered in this state.

When I look around this room I see all the faces that have helped build this great State. All the people who have come from many lands to call this place their home.

You all deserve the greatest thanks for your work in building our community.

By signing the community accord today we are committing to ensuring Victoria remains a peaceful, harmonious and prosperous state.

Thanks to you all!

Australian Citizenship
A Speech on the Proposed Changes to Australian Citizenship Laws
VASST VCE TEACHERS CONFERENCE
19 March 2007 Caulfield Melbourne
Address by Peter van Vliet, Executive Officer

Thank you for the opportunity to address the VASST Conference today on the issue of Australian citizenship.

Today I wanted to focus on the politics of citizenship and look at the current debates around citizenship in Australia.

Australian immigration and Australian citizenship policies are of course closely linked. As Social Studies teachers I don’t need to tell you that at Australia’s Federation in 1901, one of the first Acts of the new federal parliament was the Immigration Restriction Act which entrenched Australia’s then White Australia policy.

However, world events like the retreat of the British Empire during the Second World War, the famous ‘Fall of Singapore’ and the bombing of Darwin by Japanese forces in 1942, forced Australia to rethink its migration and population policy.

Soon after the War Australians became citizens, rather than subjects, with the passing of the Australian Citizenship Act in 1948 by the Chifley Government. Around that time Australia’s large post-war migration boom also began.

‘Populate or perish’ was the theme and our brief brush with Japanese domination convinced Australians that the country could not sustain itself with a population of less than 10 million people.

Since the Second World War Australia has absorbed over 6 million migrants, around one million per decade. This has been one of the most successful, well managed migration programs in the world. It has literally changed the face of our nation.

The initial streams were from central and southern Europe, countries like Italy—and like Holland, where my father came from. Then came the Greek migration wave and later still the Indo-Chinese wave, stemming from Malcolm Fraser’s courageous decision to allow Vietnamese refugees to settle in Australia.

The White Australia policy was also effectively ditched from the late 1960s on, following both domestic and international pressure for our racially discriminatory laws to be scrapped.

It is worth noting that today most migrants come from the United Kingdom, China, India and New Zealand under our skilled migration program. This stream now forms the largest chunk of our immigration program. A small proportion of our migrants also come from countries like Sudan and Burma under our refugee program.

As we have absorbed these migrants our culture too has of course evolved. We have gone from being a predominantly mono-cultural Anglo-Saxon country, not forgetting of course Indigenous Australians, to a multicultural community, particularly in our big cities like Melbourne and Sydney.

Nowadays few people argue our post-war migration experience has not benefited Australia. Our population is over twenty million and we have passed through over a decade of economic growth—something few other countries in the world have achieved.

Our migration experience has enriched us: economically, socially and culturally. We have gone from being a society where around 97% of the population was from and Anglo-Celtic background to one where around one quarter of the population has a non-Anglo-Celtic background.

With this new multicultural society, Australian citizenship has become hugely important. Citizenship is a critical part of the migration experience. It is crucial to successfully integrating migrants into the Australian community.

A shared Australian citizenship breaks down the barriers of race, ethnicity and language. It unites all Australians around core values like democracy, the rule of law and our shared homeland.

Australian citizenship for the last forty odd years has been up until now profoundly democratic and egalitarian.

Becoming an Australian citizen has meant being welcomed into the Australian family. It means sharing the rights and responsibilities that go with citizenship: exclusive rights and responsibilities like voting, having an Australian passport, serving on juries, being able to work in our federal public service or serving in our armed forces.

Up until now people wishing to become Australian citizens had to have two year’s residency, pass a Basic English test, pass a character test, and make a public pledge to our country, our laws and our democracy.

This has been an inclusive process that has seen many migrants from non-English speaking backgrounds become citizens.

But now the barriers are going up. Undoubtedly since September 11, 2001, the Bali Bombings of 2002, the Iraq War from 2003 and the London Bombings of 2005, the values of cultural diversity and pluralism have been in retreat.

Perhaps not surprisingly some people in the West have responded in kind to these events. People have begun to question the value of multiculturalism. In January this year the Howard Government officially dumped the word multiculturalism from its list of Ministries. Integration has become the new buzz word.

With these seismic world events Australia has gradually, almost unnoticeably, become a less optimistic society. We have become a society less willing to accept the inherent decency in the hearts of most people we share this magnificent country with.

As Federal Labor MP Carmen Lawrence said recently, “The emphasis is (now) on exclusion rather than inclusion, on fear rather than hope.”

And now the new politics of fear have touched on our citizenship laws.

Last month, without much fanfare, new laws passed the Australian parliament that doubled the waiting period for Australian citizenship for some migrants from two to four years. Federal Labor supported this legislation in its final form.

This means that an African refugee, without adequate travel papers, may have to wait four rather than two years to obtain a valid passport and be able to visit a sick or dying relative overseas.

Shortly we also expect to see legislation mandating a much higher level computer based English test, as well as an Australian knowledge test.

Citizenship applicants will have to sign up to a list of six apparently core Australian values. These are values that are above and beyond the current public pledge to our country, our democracy and the rule of law.

Make no mistake about it this test will mean that a large number of migrants, and in particular refugees from non-English speaking backgrounds, will fail such a test. People without good English language skills will fail the test.

Some African migrants from Sudan and the Horn of African will fail the test. Some older migrants from countries like Vietnam and China would also fail the test.

As the prominent Victorian Liberal MP Petro Georgiou said last week this is a test that many Australian born citizens would also fail.

This is because the new test will require the extra skills of reading and responding to written English, further to the existing requirement for spoken English.

With one and a half million Australians from English speaking backgrounds having very poor literacy standards they may well fail such a test. Thankfully they will not have to reapply for their Australian citizenship under this new model!

The great bulk of migrants from our skilled migration program will pass the test easily as they already have good English skills. Ironically many of our skilled migrants, particularly from the United Kingdom, don’t necessarily want to become Australian citizens anyway.

What the Government’s new citizenship laws will do is discriminate against non-English speaking migrants seeking to become Australian citizens.

No one from the migrant sector is saying English language is not important. On the contrary, English language acquisition is hugely important:  important for jobs, important for training, and important for successful integration.

But surely the aim of the government should be teaching rather than testing.

Migrants themselves want to learn English. No one enjoys sitting in queues or shopping and not being able to communicate with other people. Sometimes however, age, family commitments, long work hours or existing learning difficulties may prevent the quick acquisition of English for some people. For some people learning English can take a lifetime. Some may never get there!

The Government seems determined to use the stick approach by linking citizenship to a higher level English test that we know many people will fail.

Why not use the carrot approach of more flexible adult migrant English programs. Who knows we could maybe even remove the late night adult movies from SBS and have practical English lessons for new migrants! SBS might actually meet their charter obligations.

And we should never forget migrants’ kids generally have good English. In fact, journalist and author George Megalogenis has shown the sons of post-war European migrants have on average higher levels of education than their more established Australian counterparts.

The proposed citizenship laws are in my view an ill-conceived attempt to tap into the current climate of fear in our community, in this a federal election year.

The laws will do zip all to reduce the threat of terrorism in Australia. If anything they may well encourage a culture of exclusion among certain refugee communities that may have negative effects on our social harmony further down the track.

Australia is actually a world leader in successfully integrating migrants into our community. Sure each wave of migrants presents new challenges. I know that many schools and probably many of you individually are presently facing the challenge of schooling refugee kids from Africa who may have unique learning and literacy problems.

But modern Australia has always met these challenges successfully. On the whole our policies of inclusion, and our policies of multiculturalism which have allowed people to celebrate their own cultural identity, have made migration work in this country.

This has contributed to the economic prosperity we have today. It has enabled us to enjoy and celebrate a remarkable level of cultural diversity in this country.

As our population ages and skills shortages grow the on-going success of our migration program will become even more important.

The Government’s proposal for a high level citizenship test will diminish the universal citizenship that we have successfully established here in Australia. There will be a gradual removal of the common bonds that exist between all people of all backgrounds and between people of all literacy levels in Australia.

Australian citizenship is extremely important. As the leader of the Melbourne based Sudanese lost boys, Akoch Manheim, has said:

There are no words that truly express how it feels for a stateless person to receive the privilege of Australian citizenship in a country like Australia. An approximation might be the experience of a person who has battled a serious illness, experiencing the borderline of death, only to recover and resume full health. Citizenship is a gift of God of priceless value.
(End quote).

Akoch is right. Citizenship is a gift. And it is often only those that don’t have citizenship that realize how supremely important the gift is.

I just wanted to finish now with one final observation. This week you’ll notice some people such as me wearing orange ribbons.  That’s because this week is cultural diversity week and on this Wednesday March 21 we celebrate Harmony Day, which also marks the United Nations day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

In 1965 the United Nations enacted the International Covenant on the Elimination of all forms of racial Discrimination, which Australia ratified in 1975.

This is one of the great body of instruments of the United Nations, which includes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, that seeks to protect the human rights of people around the globe.

All of these instruments were set up following the affronts to humanity we witnessed during the Second World War. Now more than ever the common human rights principles found in these instruments matter.

Interestingly Australia’s proposed citizenship laws potentially conflict with Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which states that minority groups may practice their language rights free from discrimination. They also may conflict with Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that says everybody has the right to a nationality. But these are probably arguments for lawyers.

Let me conclude today by saying that these rights are important. An inclusive Australian citizenship is important. Australia shouldn’t retreat into a world of fear and difference. We should stand united around a common citizenship open to all people who have lawfully come to call Australia home and pass basic requirements. These are the bonds that unite us. Thanks for your time today.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak at today’s forum and I welcome you all. May I begin by paying my respects to the traditional indigenous owners of the land and their elders past and present.

It gives me great pleasure to speak on behalf of the Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria today on the changing face of the Victorian community.
When Gaetano asked me to speak today he said he wanted the stats on multiculturalism in Victoria and inner-North Melbourne.
So my speech today will include many statistics. If you are numerically challenged I advise you to switch off and go and make yourself a cup of coffee.

But before I get too far into the details, the key fact to remember is Victoria is arguably Australia’s most multicultural state. And here in Darebin you are right in the epicentre of multicultural Victoria.

And with today’s forum in mind, the multicultural component of your local population definitely peaks in the older age groups. Firstly today I want to speak on the changing face of Victoria and then I will hone in on the Darebin and Moreland areas. As I said earlier Victoria is arguably Australia’s most multicultural state, just ahead of New South Wales.

In Victoria 20% of the population or one million out of five million people speak a language other than English at home. 43.5% of Victorians including myself were either born overseas or have one or more parents born overseas. That’s 2.2 million people!

This huge increase in multicultural Melbourne has predominantly been the result of post-war migration which saw one million migrants come to Victoria, mostly from Europe. We can look at Victoria’s social history as having three phases. The indigenous phase up until around 1830. The Anglo-Celtic Australian phase up until the second world war and then the multicultural phase from about 1950 on.

In more recent years Victoria’s migrant intake has been much more diverse than during the post-war period. Today Victoria’s migrants come from countries like India, Sudan and Sri-Lanka as well as our traditional feeder country of the United Kingdom. From the 1970s we also saw a significant intake of Vietnamese migrants which continues today.

But the continental Europeans have largely stopped migrating to Victoria as the European economies have recovered. This means that many of our continental European groups have ageing populations. The other significant feature of Victoria’s population is that it is ageing rapidly. Within a year the seniors, or over 60 population will be one million or around one in five Victorians. And in that ageing community there is massive diversity. It is worth noting that in just five years—2011—38% of the over-65 population in Melbourne will be from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

That’s a powerful statistic—38% of over-65s across Melbourne will be from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds by 2011.

By country of birth the Italian, Greek, German, Polish and Dutch communities are now the largest older culturally and linguistically divers populations in Victoria in that order. By 2021 the oldest Victorian CALD communities in order will be the Italian, Greek, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Macedonian communities. This shows the eventual emergence of Asian communities in our community’s ageing profile.

Victorians are living longer than ever and we have lower birth rates.  But by 2044 more than one quarter of Victorians will be over the age of 65, hopefully including me. This all adds up to an older community.

This also causes economic strains. Currently in Victoria we have six taxpayers for every retiree but in 25 year there will only be three taxpayers per retiree. Further still we are not only in the grips an ageing crisis we are also in the grips of a related  skills crisis.

By 2010 Victoria is expected to have a shortage of somewhere around 50,000 skilled workers. In Australia the skilled workers shortage will be around 200,000. This scenario is set to make some of our in-demand skilled tradespeople small fortunes.

Our combined ageing and skills crises point to the need for a continued strong immigration program despite the present anti-immigration rumblings of some federal members of parliament. But that is an argument for another day.

Having looked at the statistics across Victoria I now want to look briefly at the statistics in Darebin and Northland where we are today. This includes the suburbs of Preston, Brunswick, Glenroy and Pascoe Vale, Northcote, Fairfield and Thornbury.

Can I firstly say that in Darebin and Moreland you are living very much in the heart of Victorian multiculturalism.

Moreland and Darebin rank 5^th and 6^th respectively of the 79 Victorian local government areas with the highest percentage of speakers of languages other than English at home. So for cultural diversity you are ranked 6^th and 7^th out of 79.

According to our 2001 census just over 40% of residents in both municipalities speak a language other than English at home. That’s a huge figure.

But if we drill down further and look at our senior citizens the multicultural population in these two municipalities gets even bigger.

Currently in the City of Darebin, around 9,000 people or 47% of the 65+ age cohort are from CALD backgrounds. Darebin’s CALD numbers will exceed 50% of the 65+ population in the next ten years.

In the City of Moreland the ethnic seniors’ figure is higher still with 10,000 people—already 50% of Moreland’s seniors’ population.

In Darebin and Moreland the top five over-65 or older ethnic communities are somewhat different to the rest of Melbourne.

The largest older ethnic groups are the Italians with around 10,000 older people, followed by the Greeks with around 4,000, Maltese with around 600, and Arabic and Macedonian people with around 500.

So the older population in this area has a more strongly Mediterranean feel than the rest of Victoria.  For instance the number of German, Polish or Dutch older people is smaller in this area when compared with other parts of metropolitan Melbourne.

So in Moreland and Darebin and more or less in Melbourne cultural diversity is now the mainstream, not the marginal! It’s difficult to argue against multiculturalism when you are multicultural.

But what do all these figures mean. It’s great to throw around statistics but they do need a practical policy context.

What the figures mean is that the State of Victoria has a huge policy challenge not just with population ageing but with older people from non-English speaking migrant backgrounds.

For this significant component of our ageing population we have to ge culturally competent service delivery right. We know that as people age they often revert to their first language. We know many people need more care as they get older.

That is why at Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria we recently released our Multicultural Aged Care Strategy for Victoria’s political parties in the lead up to our State Election.

With many of our post-war immigrants now entering their senior years, there has never been a more urgent need for a comprehensive government policy that addresses the needs of this large cohort of our ageing population.

ECCV’s Multicultural Aged Care Strategy calls for a comprehensive state government policy to address this issue.

This would include strengthening the capacity of ethno-specific service providers to effectively deliver home and community care or HACC services. Services like meals on wheels, activity groups and home help.

The Multicultural Aged Care Strategy includes allowing for more client choice in selecting HACC services. Clients should be able to chose between different service providers as is often the case with residential aged care services. We should be wary of monopoly providers. A diverse community needs diverse services.

ECCV also wants greater funding of ethnic senior citizens clubs so they can run healthy living programs. We want our ethnic seniors to benefit from active and healthy living programs. We also want to ensure any elder abuse in ethnic communities is appropriately addressed.

So getting back to Gaetano’s original question I can say “yes”, Melbourne’s population is ageing, and ‘yes’ our community is very multicultural. Further in Darebin and Moreland you have a large and growing older ethnic population which is predominantly Mediterranean.

In conclusion, Victoria’s ethnic seniors’ population is rising as our post-war migrants age. We need to respond appropriately to the needs of this growing group and I do hope that today’s forum assists with that challenge.

Our post-war migrants have made an enormous contribution to the Victorian community. They have built this state into the economic, social and cultural powerhouse that it is today.

It is important that we give something back to this community in their time of need. ECCV is committed to this challenge. We hope the incoming State Government shares this passion and commits to a multicultural aged care strategy after our November election.

I wish you all the best with today’s forum and I look forward to hearing of the proceedings. Thank you.

Ends                                                                     

The ECCV is extremely proud to present our proposal for a Multicultural Aged Care Strategy to Victoria’s political parties in the lead up to our State Election.

In my view presently the three most critical issues for multicultural advocates in no particular order are firstly getting service delivery right for new and emerging communities, secondly getting service delivery right for our ageing post-war immigrants, and finally fostering community harmony and good will particularly with regard to the recent unwarranted attacks on our Australian-Muslim community by senior political figures.

I am pleased to say at ECCV we are addressing all these issues and just last week also released a report on language services for our new and emerging communities. So we are now we are pleased to move to the other key issue of multicultural aged care services.

With our post-war immigrants now entering their senior years, there has never been a more urgent need for a comprehensive government policy that addresses the needs of this large cohort of our ageing population.

Many post-war immigrants, helped build the economic, social and cultural fabric of Victoria. For instance I think of my Dutch grandparents and father who arrived in the 1950s from Amsterdam, to build new lives in Victoria after Holland was devastated by the Second World War. They quickly set to work building hundreds of houses in the South-Eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

Then there are the large numbers of post-war immigrant workers from countries like Italy, Greece, Germany, Poland, Malta, Turkey, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia who often did the difficult jobs needed in a post-war boom economy. Jobs like building our renowned Snowy Mountains Scheme. Our more recently arrived immigrants groups such as our wonderful Vietnamese community will also see their ageing profile peak in the coming decades.

The statistics are of course important. As the terrific report on Cultural Diversity and HACC published by the Department of Human Services and written by Anna Howe showed, in 2011 38% of Melbourne’s seniors’ population will be from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. That is a huge statistic by any measure. Statistics show that Victoria is Australia’s most multicultural state, just edging out New South Wales, but it is also clear we have the largest multicultural CALD population. This made the Commonwealth’s recent cuts to the Victorian Community Partners Program, affecting the Polish, Maltese, Spanish, Italian and Greek communities among others, particularly disappointing.

Statistics in our report show that by country of birth the Italian, Greek, German, Polish and Dutch communities are now the largest older culturally and linguistically divers populations in Victoria in that order. Currently an amazing 41% of the Dutch-born Victorian population are over the age of 65. By 2021 the oldest CALD communities in order will be the Italian, Greek, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Macedonian communities. This shows the eventual emergence of Asian communities in our community’s ageing profile.

Now I want to say from the outset that the Victorian Government has made important steps in beginning to address these issues. The Culturally Equitable Gateways Strategy has been significant in addressing cultural awareness issues for mainstream home and community care providers like local government, although of course funding may run out for this initiative in June next year. The Cultural Action Planning Framework has put mainstream providers on notice for the need to develop cultural diversity plans. But as always more work needs to be done and so I now come to our Multicultural Aged Care Strategy.

The key element of our Multicultural Aged Care Strategy is that all these various piecemeal programs be combined into one as a Multicultural Aged Care Strategy, which would address this significant public policy challenge.

The second element of the strategy is a recommendation to strengthen the capacity of ethno-specific service providers to effectively deliver home and community care or HACC. This is of course a perennial battle between our ethnic communities and the Victorian Government. But we at ECCV as always feel that ethno-specific and multicultural service providers do have the capacity to become HACC Basic service providers when there communities are of a sufficient size to justify ethno-specific service delivery.

JewishCare, who are probably the only ethno-specific agency providing a suite of Basic HACC services show that it can be done. With our larger ageing migrant groups such as the Italians, Greeks and Polish communities there is no reason that they should not provide ethno-specific HACC Basic services to their communities.

As a table in our report shows of the top ten older ethnic communities in Victoria, eight are providing decent and high standard Commonwealth funded residential aged care services to their communities. But the table also shows that virtually none of the top ten older communities are providing State and Commonwealth funded HACC Basic services. We think that this inequity represents a blind spot in current HACC service planning and ask that the incoming government carefully consider this issue.

The third element of our Multicultural Aged Care Strategy relates closely to the second is a recommendation to provide for more client choice in selecting HACC services. We in the ethnic community sector are fairly confident that many culturally and linguistically diverse older people would be more satisfied in receiving ethno-specific services if they were provided with that choice, just as many would be happy to continue receiving services from existing providers.

The fourth element of the strategy is ensuring that state public sector aged care facilities provide culturally sensitive services where appropriate. The State of Victoria is the largest residential aged care provider in Victoria and as such is a key part of getting culturally competent residential aged care service delivery right.

The final fifth and six elements of the strategy call for greater funding ethnic senior citizens clubs to run healthy living programs so that our ethnic seniors can benefit from active and healthy living programs and also to ensure any elder abuse in ethnic communities is appropriately addressed.

We hope the strategy guides the policy development of Government and political parties in the lead up to the November election. I encourage you all to have a good look at the report, spread the word about the need for a Multicultural Aged Care Strategy and would welcome feedback on the report. Thank you.

ENDS

Diversity in Action Forum

Meeting the Needs of Multicultural Seniors

Broadmeadows, 26 July 2006

Address by Peter van Vliet, Executive Officer

Thank you for the opportunity to speak at today’s forum and I welcome you all.

It gives me great pleasure to speak on behalf of the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria, a key partner with the State Government in delivering culturally appropriate aged care services.

Victoria’s multicultural communities deeply appreciates the work you are all undertaking in improving HACC service delivery to culturally and linguistically diverse HACC clients under the Victorian cultural planning strategy.

At the outset I would particularly like to thank our HACC access and equity officers here today for their wonderful work.

I would particularly like to thank Gita Rotherham, based at the Migrant Resource Centre, and Samia Mina and Halime Duzan, at ADEC.

Thanks also must go to Meyer Eidelson of ADEC for his wonderful work as the Statewide Access and Equity Officer, providing support to the 12 Access and Equity Officers across the state.

Cultural action plans are an important part of the service delivery jigsaw puzzle to ensure we get our service response right to our ever-expanding culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) seniors’ population.

It’s incredible to note that in just five years—2011—38% of over-65s in Melbourne will be from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

In the North-West region of Melbourne which already has the highest percentage of diversity amongst the 65+ population this proportion could well increase to around 50% of over 65s by 2011.

In the City of Brimbank, over 9,000 people or 66 % of that age cohort are from CALD backgrounds.

In the City of Moreland the CALD seniors’ figure is 10,000 people or 50% of that age cohort (2001 statistics).

The challenge of culturally appropriate service delivery is therefore a significant one and it is important we get our service responses right.

People from CALD backgrounds are identified as one of the ‘special needs groups’ within the broad HACC target population, as defined in the Commonwealth HACC provisions.

Since 1997, the Department of Human Services (DHS) has requested all HACC agencies develop Cultural Action Plans based on the HACC Cultural Planning Tool.

There are around 130 HACC agencies in the North-West who with the assistance from the HACC Access and Equity Officers, are developing and implementing cultural action plans.

This enables agencies to ensure that their programs are both accessed by CALD senior people and that programs are culturally sensitive.

The strategy is one response to the considerable data gathered by governments at the Federal and State level that show that ethnic consumers have been consistently under-represented in HACC services.

Over the past decade or so, the Cultural Planning Strategy has had a major influence in changing the provider culture in the Home and Community Care Program.

Some of the areas in which progress has been made include:

• increasing the numbers of bi-lingual workers,
• increasing CALD consumer participation in service planning and policy,
• expanding the amount of information available in community languages,
• and developing greater numbers of partnerships between generalist HACC providers and ethno-specific agencies.

DHS has an important role to play in ensuring that agencies submit their plans by 30 September each year according to their service agreements and, in return, agencies are provided appropriate and timely feedback by the Department.

We are gratified that last year over 90% of HACC providers in the North and West Region submitted cultural action plans. Ideally we at ECCV would like to see a 100% return and hope DHS can move towards this in the near future.

This high number of cultural action plans shows the strong commitment by providers to deliver quality services to the entire community and I congratulate HACC providers on their ongoing commitment to the many ethnic communities in the region.

The demands on HACC providers are always increasing and there are often waiting lists for HACC services.

Ethnic communities in particular tend to utilise social support services such as planned activity groups which often have large waiting lists.

While we appreciate DHS’ commitment to increase funding for planned activity groups by up to 5% over the next three years we want to ensure this commitment is met and not quietly forgotten.

There is a lot of wiggle room in the wording of this commitment and we would prefer DHS commit to this modest and well-needed initiative as soon as possible.

We also want to see the State Government’s commitment to the Culturally Equitable Gateways Strategy maintained in some form beyond June 2007 when CEGS funding expires.

Recent DHS research has shown an 8.75% increase in the use of HACC services by CALD seniors across the metropolitan region. 

This is a significant achievement and reflects the enormous amount of work that has gone into implementing CEGS by the various project workers, including ECCV.

CEGS has worked hand-in-glove with the HACC cultural planning strategy and it is important we do not weaken in our resolve to meet this on-going challenge with both policy tools.

Finally as ECCV executive officer it is important that I stress we should not discount the role of ethno-specific providers entirely.

Where there is sufficient critical mass within individual multicultural populations, ethno-specific service providers should be considered part of the solution to getting service responses right—they should not be dismissed out of hand.

Now let me introduce today’s activities.

Today, we will hear from five agencies across the North-West region about their particular cultural action plans.

Some of the initiatives include:

• employer flexibility to respond to the cultural needs of staff,
• outsourcing care for specific clients to ensure clients receive culturally appropriate care, and
• the use of different promotional strategies in order to increase the use of HACC services in particular cultural communities.

We thank the agencies represented for sharing their strategies and hope that it provides stimulation for further innovative strategies to service the ever growing CALD seniors population.

Congratulations to you all for the great work you are continuing to do in meeting the needs of ageing multicultural seniors.

This is important work and it comes at a time when people are more vulnerable than before and need a helping hand.

Our post-war migrants have made an enormous contribution to the Victorian community in building this state into the economic, social and cultural powerhouse that it is today.

It is important work; giving a little back when they need a helping hand.

Thank you.

ENDS