World Vision CEO Tim Costello delivers the inaugural Walter Lippmann Memorial Lecture at the Wheeler Centre

Last week the Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria (ECCV) hosted the inaugural Walter Lippmann Memorial Lecture, delivered by World Vision CEO Tim Costello to a packed Wheeler Centre crowd.

Mr Costello’s speech, Piecing Australia together: The paradox of cultural diversity in an evolving nation, covered many contemporary aspects of multicultural debate including population growth, refugees and diversity.

"The critical problem is that fear is an irresistibly attractive political tool in partisan debates," Mr Costello said.

He argued Australia needed to build regional frameworks and implement humane refugee policies that didn’t raise exaggerated fears about border security.

"We seem to have lost sight of the real heart of the issue - conflicts and poverty are the main causes of population movements," Mr Costello said.

"So much of the debate on refugees is premised that they are a burden, but we embrace them when they do well.”

 Mr Costello added that migration and cultural diversity will remain central to the Australian story.

“ People will come to Australia if the opportunities exist and Australia will demand that they come,” he said.   

“ Government can dial down the intake in response to a short-term political demand, but once labour and skill shortages re-emerge the pressure to dial up again will be irresistible.”

The lecture series was launched by Former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, who joined Mr Costello in recognising the contributions of Walter Lippmann, ECCV’s founding chairperson.

 “[Walter Lippmann] recognised that through the Council, leaders of communities could develop experience in lobbying and policy-making, and thus improve their policy impact,” Mr Costello said.

“He realised that the embrace of cultural diversity and finding a way of producing engagement and dialogue between communities and the institutions of government, was the way forward to a society that was at once cohesive and creative.”

ECCV was also honoured to have Mr Lippmann’s grandson Matthew Albert speak about his contribution to Australian multiculturalism.

The video footage of the inaugural Walter Lippmann Memorial Lecture will be made available on the Wheeler Centre website  wheelercentre.com/videos. www.whee

For more information about the Walter Lippmann Memorial Lecture series you can contact the Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria at (03) 9349 4122, eccv@eccv.org.au or via Twitter @ethnicvic.