Wednesday, 12 August 2026

 David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (14:47): It is a pleasure to rise and speak on the Multicultural Victoria Amendment Bill 2026. Can I say from the outset that multiculturalism in this state is one of those important ingredients. It is what I have called on many occasions the secret sauce in Victoria. Those that come here and share their faiths, their traditions, their cultures and their backgrounds really enhance the great state that we have. For many, many years, multiculturalism has been a bipartisan thing where all sides of Parliament have tried to work and champion faith, champion inclusion and champion people’s cultures and backgrounds – up until recently. In 2015 things changed, when the government tried to politicise multiculturalism, taking away the independence it had and putting it into the Premier’s office. We saw it become just a grants machine. It was an opportunity for Labor Party members of Parliament to attend dinners, functions and events, and exclude Liberal Party members of Parliament from attending those events.

Mary-Anne Thomas interjected.

David SOUTHWICK: The member for Macedon can interject as much as the member likes, but it was the member for Macedon and many others that would be invited to these events, whereas the opposition were not afforded the same opportunity. I am more than happy to share examples of that, as we have been asked to do by those opposite. To give examples: the Premier’s multicultural dinner, which was a taxpayer-funded event costing $438,000 – at this particular dinner, the opposition had only a few people attend, whereas a significant number of Labor members and ministers were there. The Premier’s Diwali state reception, another taxpayer-funded multicultural celebration – dozens of Labor MPs again attended, and again, the coalition received a couple of invitations. The opposition was not even afforded the opportunity to address attendees, which had been a longstanding tradition but did not happen on this particular occasion. More recently, the Shrove Tuesday reception for diverse Christian communities – a number of Labor MPs attended, while the opposition received no invitations. At the Premier’s Lunar New Year celebration, Victoria’s only Vietnamese MP Trung Luu was not invited to attend alongside other Vietnamese community members.

There was one event, though, which the Liberals were invited to, and that was at the Asian Business Association of Whitehorse, a very important event that happened just recently. The Leader of the Opposition was there, and the Prime Minister was there. The Premier was invited, but the Premier was off at Neil Diamond. So it is pretty clear in terms of where his priorities sit: there was a very important event for the Asian Business Association of Whitehorse, and the Premier prioritised a concert. We love Neil Diamond, we love the arts and we love events, but at the end of the day we see a Premier whose priorities certainly are not focused on supporting multicultural communities, as indicated by the Prime Minister being there and the Leader of the Opposition being there. Where was the Premier? Absolutely MIA.

Can I also just thank, at the outset with all of this, Avraham Bensky from Yesodei HaTorah. Avraham has been interning in my office today. He is a year 10 student who has prepared some information for us today in this contribution. Particularly for our Jewish community, who have experienced a whole lot of antisemitism and hate since 7 October 2023, it certainly has been a different world and a different Victoria since then. Can I say to many members in this chamber that have certainly reached out and been very supportive: thank you to you. But can I also say that there has been a lack of action, particularly with the likes of the Victorian Multicultural Commission and particularly with specific commissioners, when there should have been more effort made and more leadership, but there has been a complete failure. I would suggest that a lot of the review to where we are today is largely because of the weak response from the Victorian Multicultural Commission when it comes to dealing with antisemitism in this state.

I want to share with you some of the scenarios. The former Victorian multicultural commissioner Mohamed Mohideen published antisemitic material on social media, including resharing material depicting Jewish people as the devil with horns. Melbourne advocate Menachem Vorchheimer raised this matter directly with the then multicultural affairs minister Ingrid Stitt and received no response – zero response. This is the highest minister in the state dealing with multicultural affairs. When you have got somebody within an affected community that has been targeted by those actually in senior positions on a commission meant to be all about inclusion, respect and ensuring support for the most vulnerable and targeted communities, where was the minister – nowhere to be seen. Where was one of the commissioners – re-sharing antisemitic hate. Because the government did nothing, Menachem Vorchheimer was forced to bring proceedings under the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001. The matter was resolved at VCAT compulsory conference in December 2025, with the commission agreeing to amend its charter, which only became available recently. The commission did not admit liability. The story is not just about the post but about a government that had a direct complaint about antisemitic conduct from one of its own appointees and did nothing until a private citizen was forced to go to the tribunal to get action. A minister who does not respond to a serious complaint about antisemitism is not a minister taking antisemitism seriously.

We have just seen a royal commission, which we are going through at the moment, and this goes to the absolute core of it. When you are in power, when you are in leadership, when you are in key positions, you would expect the minister to act. The charter change is welcome in terms of what we have here, but it should never have taken a litigation to get here. This is a failure of process, not a solution to it. It sits alongside the Multicultural Victoria Amendment Bill, which grew out of the Lekakis review commissioned after the community tensions, including antisemitism, yet the framing of the bill has scrubbed any reference to what I am talking about here today – zero reference. But when it was finally raised, when questions were raised by the Herald Sun and by other media outlets about this, when I raised this with the minister, when we raised this with the commission, we got a review. When we asked for Mohamed Mohideen to be sacked, the response was, ‘We’ve got the Lekakis review. The Lekakis review will ensure that we fix these.’ Well, where is the information about that in any of the bill reports that talks about antisemitism, that talks about part of the key reasons why we are here today? You cannot shove it under the carpet. You have got to be able to see it, hear it and tackle it. That is why we have the issues of antisemitism in our state, because this government wants to shove it under the carpet like nothing ever happened. Well, it did happen. You had a commissioner appointed by the government that said horrific hateful things, and it has just been scrubbed as if it did not happen. Well, it did happen, and I am here today to put that on the record, to say that it happened under this government – Andrews, Allan, Carroll, whoever was in leadership. They have allowed this hate to transpire.

This pattern is not an isolated incident. The government acts on antisemitism only when it is forced to and avoids saying the word. It took a VCAT complaint, not ministerial oversight, to force the charter amendment. Why didn’t the minister respond? Why hasn’t the government done anything about actually naming the issues that we have here today? This is a frequent occurrence. This has happened time and time again. It is a government that is reactive, a government that has not dealt with protests on the streets, not registered protests, not brought in move-on laws and not ensured that communities, no matter who they are and where they come from, can be safe on the streets in Victoria. There has got to be a rule for everybody, and there is not in this government. We can change things. I welcome the change.

I finally say: why is the government advertising appointments for commissioners before we have even discussed this bill? There are $400,000 or $500,000 jobs with four-year appointments now. This should be taken to the election. This shows how dodgy this government is. They want to appoint commissioners, before the bill has even gone through, on a four-year appointment. It just shows how disgraceful and how dodgy this government is. You change the leader – Allan to Carroll – you get the same. You get the same dodgy practices. They want to appoint people on $400,000 jobs on four-year appointments before the legislation has come through, four months out before an election. What a disgrace. They are a disgraceful government that should hang their heads in shame.

 Ella GEORGE (Lara) (14:57): I am really proud to rise and make a contribution on the Multicultural Victoria Amendment Bill 2026 and prouder still of what it will mean for the multicultural community in the Lara electorate. I would like to begin by thanking our new Minister for Multicultural Affairs and also the previous Minister for Multicultural Affairs and their teams for all of the hard work that has gone into this legislation but also the broader reform work that has come out of the Lekakis review. The Multicultural Victoria Amendment Bill 2026 delivers key reforms that follow from Victoria’s multicultural review, led by George Lekakis. It will establish Multicultural Victoria, which will be a new statutory body that will absorb the role of the current Victorian Multicultural Commission. It will also have new responsibilities, including developing safety plans for communities affected by serious and distressing events. It will enable implementation of language services reform, which includes enabling critical areas of government work to be assigned to LanguageLoop, the Victorian interpreting and translation service. Commencing from October this year, Multicultural Victoria will be led by a new multicultural coordinator general, who will be supported by two deputies and an advisory council.

Multicultural Victoria will be a fresh start, equipping us with the ability to offer better support and empower our local communities throughout Victoria. It will improve how government listens to and connects with communities on the ground, reinforcing our government’s commitment to stand with our local multicultural communities. The multicultural review was announced in December 2024, and what a long way we have come since. Published in September 2025, the review listened to more than 600 Victorians across 50 consultations and received almost 160 written submissions, hearing about how we can strengthen and support our multicultural and multifaith communities. I had the honour of attending one such consultation led by George Lekakis in Geelong. We had the consultation at Cultura, which is an incredible organisation in Geelong supporting thousands of people from multicultural communities. I am really pleased to say that the voices of the Geelong community were very much reflected in the findings of the review.

It is no great surprise that the review found that multiculturalism is one of our state’s greatest strengths. We all know that we benefit from the cultural, social and economic contributions of our multicultural communities, and the report confirmed this. However, the review also found that, unfortunately, there are challenges which are putting strain on our communities. I know that when I am speaking with and meeting with members of my community, I hear that many people are struggling with the way they are sometimes treated. The report also found that communities are feeling under attack, with more incidents of Islamophobia, antisemitism, racism and hate crimes. The review called for measures to reinforce unity, inclusion and a refreshed whole-of-government approach to multicultural affairs. It made 41 recommendations, and I am really proud that as a government we have committed to a range of actions following the report, including establishing Multicultural Victoria, developing a multicultural strategy, introducing a social cohesion values commitment, investing in multicultural organisations and multicultural museums, recognising essential services for multicultural communities and considering the multicultural impact of government policies. On this side of the house we understand that by supporting and uplifting our multicultural and multifaith communities they can become champions of unity and cohesion.

In the community that I represent we have a strong and rich multicultural story and one that we are very proud of. Our community has benefited from the rich and diverse presence of people from many different parts of the world. Geelong’s north includes suburbs such as Bell Park, Corio, Norlane, North Shore and North Geelong, which have long been among the most culturally diverse areas within the Geelong region. While the municipal average is 17 per cent, suburbs such as Bell Park have overseas-born resident rates reaching over 30 per cent. Norlane and North Shore record the highest proportion of non-Christian religious affiliations at 11 per cent, followed closely by Corio and Bell Park. While in the 1950s and the 1960s our multicultural community was traditionally made up of a mix of postwar European migration, such as Italian, Croatian and Dutch communities, this has changed, and now we see many communities that have come from across the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

While the types of communities in Geelong continue to grow and change, what has not changed is the incredible support that has been available. Cultura, which was previously known as Diversitat, has been a steady and strong pillar within the Geelong community supporting multicultural families since 1957. The Cultura Northern Community Hub officially opened in Norlane in February 2011, built on the historic postwar migrant hostel site then known as the Norlane Hostel. During the 1950s and 60s thousands of European migrants temporarily lived in huts while working in industries for companies such as Ford, Shell and International Harvester. First known as the Geelong Migrant Resource Centre, then known as Diversitat and now known as Cultura, it has been the largest multicultural support network and voice for over 70 years, and today that support continues.

Cultura offers community programs and practical support for multicultural communities, and I am so proud to be a member of this Labor government, which continues to back the work that Cultura does and provides multiple different funding opportunities to them to ensure that they are supported to deliver this vital work in our community. What Cultura also offers is a collaboration of community groups that can offer guidance and support to each other. In June we had a special occasion: Cultura marked the celebration of the 50th affiliated community group, the Geelong Tamil Sanggam. This is a wonderful new community group to our region which aims to support international students and newly arrived families while helping preserve and celebrate Tamil culture. It is one of the many incredible community groups in our community that offer practical support, including language classes, social events and assisting new arrivals to settle in.

Our multicultural communities arrived in Geelong at different times and from different places, from every corner of the world. They speak different languages and they carry different traditions, but the one thing they all have in common is that they share one story: a story of courage, of hope, of belonging here in Geelong and of contributing to our community. There is no better opportunity to see the community groups all coming together than the famous Pako Festa. If you have not been to Pako Festa, I strongly encourage you to make the trip down to Geelong next year and visit Australia’s largest street festival. It is a phenomenal event. Thousands of people converge on Pakington Street for an amazing day. Pako Festa is supported by this Labor government, and it celebrates and highlights the extraordinary contribution of individuals, cultural groups and multicultural communities in Geelong. It is a full day of energetic cultural performances, the famous street parade, bright displays of cultural dress, music and sensational food stalls from all around the world.

But there are many displays of cultural celebration that happen in my community and all of our communities across Victoria. Each year I look forward to attending the North Geelong Secondary College Multicultural Festival and Northern Bay College’s Harmony Day. They are both incredible days which welcome the whole community and truly embody the values of each of these schools in celebrating their diversity. Just last week, along with the member for Geelong, I was honoured to join the Islamic Society of Geelong as they gathered to celebrate a community day. It was a wonderful day, full of many smiling faces from across all different cultures. There was music, dance and incredible food. The Islamic Society of Geelong did a great job putting together an event for our whole community, and I am glad that our government was able to support them with a grant through our multicultural festivals and events program. This grants program has supported many other community events across the Lara electorate, and if I was going to name them all I would be here all day, but I would like to mention a few of the recent successful applicants: the Geelong Nepalese Association, Club Italia Geelong, the Chinese Association of Geelong, the Greater Geelong Malayalee Association, Nepali Pathashala Geelong, Vietnamese People of Geelong, the Geelong Malayalee Association and Filipino Young Professionals Geelong – amazing community organisations that work so hard to support their communities and deliver beautiful events that everyone in our region can attend and enjoy and celebrate with them to learn a little more about one another’s culture.

Our government backs our multicultural communities with so many other supports – programs such as the multicultural capacity building program, the multicultural infrastructure and security program and the multicultural seniors support program. I know these are important programs that residents across my community have benefited from greatly. We invest in these programs because on this side of the house we value our multicultural communities and the rich diversity they bring to our state. We value it, and we celebrate it.

I am so proud of this legislation. I am so proud of the reform work that is being done in the multicultural portfolio. I am really proud of our government’s investment in multicultural communities right around Victoria. I commend this bill to the house, and I wish it a speedy passage.

 Chris CREWTHER (Mornington) (15:07): I rise to speak on the Multicultural Victoria Amendment Bill 2026. The bill would restructure the state’s multicultural policy programs and engagement with multicultural and multifaith communities. From 1 October 2026 the Victorian Multicultural Commission, an institution that in different forms has worked for more than four decades at the grassroots level and communicated community needs to government, would be abolished. Its functions and those of the multicultural affairs portfolio within the Department of Premier and Cabinet would be brought together in a new statutory entity, Multicultural Victoria. It would comprise a multicultural coordinator general and two deputies, supported by a ministerially appointed multicultural community advisory group of between five and nine members. This more centralised model creates opportunities, but it also raises concerns for me as the Shadow Assistant Minister for Multicultural and Multifaith Affairs. The change could provide a more coordinated whole-of-government response to concerns raised by communities. Combining community engagement, policy development, grants and program delivery may reduce duplication and create a clearer pathway from consultation to better policy, funding and services. The bill responds to the 2025 Victorian multicultural review led by George Lekakis AO and an expert advisory group. The review engaged more than 600 Victorians and identified confusion about roles, duplication, diminished influence and weaknesses in strategic planning and accountability.

The bill contains welcome accountability measures. Departments would prepare and publish multicultural action and inclusion plans. The coordinator general could require revisions and information and meet with departmental heads. An annual state of multicultural Victoria report would be tabled in Parliament. Multicultural Victoria would also have to report back after consultation and explain what action it took. These provisions could turn consultation from a listening exercise into measurable accountability. The bill recognises the importance of interpreting and translating services, gives Multicultural Victoria a role in community safety planning following adverse local or global events and places impartiality obligations on its leadership, staff and advisory group. The government has also said existing programs, funding agreements and events will carry over. These are positive elements, so the coalition does not oppose the bill’s second reading.

However, a new organisational chart will not by itself rebuild trust or guarantee a stronger community voice. Impartiality on paper is not the same as institutional independence in practice. The minister recommends the three senior appointments, may recommend their removal, appoints and may remove advisory group members and retains a power to direct Multicultural Victoria. Transparent, merit-based appointments, appropriate security of tenure and public accountability are therefore critical. The coalition is also concerned that recruitment began before the bill was introduced. Although no appointment will be made unless the legislation passes, appointments of up to four years could be made shortly before the November election and continue through the next Parliament. We are therefore moving an amendment, as moved earlier, so that any coordinator general or deputy appointed before the 30 January 2027 finishes on that date, allowing the government elected in November to determine the permanent appointment process.

In addition, proposed section 16 would permit the coordinator general to use staff from departments and public entities, but it guarantees neither a dedicated workforce nor an adequate operating budget. If Multicultural Victoria is to research, consult, report, coordinate government, administer grants and support community safety, Parliament should know what resources will be provided. The machinery of government is being restructured, but the bill does not guarantee additional funding for organisations delivering support on the ground. The advisory group would also include one youth representative aged 18 to 24, but otherwise the minister need only have regard to the desirability of diversity. We were assured that the existing multifaith advisory group would continue. That is welcome, but it is not actually protected by the bill. Faith is not incidental to many Victorians of multicultural backgrounds. We support meaningful multifaith representation, including at least two advisory group members from different faith backgrounds, without giving any particular faith or culture a privileged statutory position.

The requirement for a regional deputy may also be met by someone who previously lived in regional Victoria. The bill also requires only one or more regional engagement groups collectively covering the state. A meaningful current regional connection and genuine local engagement would be stronger. The new body should make formal use of established regional and metropolitan ethnic community councils rather than recreating those relationships from the centre. We also support access to qualified professional interpreters. However, the bill would allow the minister to declare public bodies that generally could not use another provider unless VITS LanguageLoop first declined. The government must show that VITS can meet demand, including low-volume languages and new and emerging communities, without delay or loss of specialist expertise. There should also be an explicit assurance that qualified human interpreters, not artificial intelligence, will be used in high-stakes health, legal and community safety settings.

Further, the bill preserves Ombudsman oversight but creates no clear, dedicated and culturally appropriate complaints or review pathway. Communities should not have to work out whether a concern belongs with the minister, a department, the public sector standards system or the Ombudsman. The bill’s impartiality obligations should also be reflected in transparent rules for grants, programs and taxpayer-funded community events. The coalition also supports recognition of the unique status of Victoria’s First Peoples, who are the original custodians of this land and hold a status distinct from multiculturalism. Our proposed amendment would retain acknowledgement of First Peoples’ right to self-determination. What we question, though, is making the advancement of Statewide Treaty making an objective of a body established principally for multicultural and multifaith affairs. Treaty has its own statutory framework and First Peoples–led institutions. Our amendment is about institutional responsibility and legislative focus, not opposition to recognition or self-determination.

On a final note, I want to bring this debate back to the practical implications of the bill locally. In my electorate and across the wider Mornington Peninsula we are fortunate to have many organisations and volunteers who do the hard work of keeping people supported and connected across diverse cultural, linguistic and generational backgrounds. The 2021 census – soon to be updated, of course – recorded 1724 people in the Mornington Peninsula identifying as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. Willum Warrain in this space is one example of an invaluable culturally safe gathering place providing and supporting connection, identity and wellbeing within the local Aboriginal community. For many years the Peninsula Ethnic Seniors Council has also brought together senior members and groups reflecting Italian, Greek, Croatian, Dutch, Polish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Russian, Filipino, Sri Lankan, South American and other communities. Its practical work demonstrates why established local networks must have a meaningful pathway into the new statewide structure. And there are many other like organisations. As a proud host of the Chatty Cafe Scheme in my office each month, I also truly appreciate the importance of combating social exclusion. I have cared for a long time about providing space where people of different ages and cultural backgrounds feel welcome. This goes for my own family too. My wife Grace came to Australia from South Korea aged three and became an Australian citizen a few years later. Our children have Korean heritage through Grace and, through me, heritage from England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, India and Portugal. This is typical of so many Australians of many different backgrounds.

I also want to acknowledge Elise, doing volunteering and work experience with me in the chamber today, whose research and drafting helped shape this contribution. I first met Elise when, as a grade 6 student at Mount Eliza North Primary School, she visited federal Parliament House with them in 2016. My speech that day must have been at least half inspiring, because she then recently approached me, now as a third-year arts and law student, to volunteer and undertake work experience. Elise’s own story also reflects our diversity. She has Indonesian, French-Mauritian and British heritage and has lived in the United States, South Africa, Indonesia, Rwanda, Kenya and Australia.

I also lastly note the current debate over ‘multicultural’ and ‘monocultural’. Both words can mean different things to different people. In my view, we should speak more about a shared and common culture. We should retain the enormous benefits of our diverse backgrounds and cultures while ensuring we are not isolated and separated from one another. We should continually take the best from around the world to develop and enhance our shared common culture, as we will succeed in Victoria and Australia when diverse and different traditions are respected while Victorians also build a shared civic culture, common responsibilities and a sense of belonging.

In conclusion, this reform will be judged not by a name on an office door but by whether an older Victorian can obtain health care in a language they understand, whether a newly arrived community is heard, whether faith communities have a meaningful voice and whether regional organisations can reach decision-makers. We do not oppose this bill, and we ask the government to support our amendments.

 Iwan WALTERS (Greenvale) (15:17): I am very pleased to contribute today to the debate on the Multicultural Victoria Amendment Bill 2026, a bill that I have been very pleased and proud to have been involved with really since its earliest phase of gestation as the Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural and Multifaith Victoria. This legislation represents I think really the biggest change in a generation to the legislative framework that underpins our multicultural and faith entities in the form of the Victorian Multicultural Commission, which will be superseded, I hope, as a consequence of this legislation by Multicultural Victoria. I want to thank at the outset the work of the VMC, its executive, and particularly the recent commissioner, Viv Nguyen, with whom I have worked closely, for their representation of Victoria’s diverse communities, for their passion, for their leadership and for genuinely caring about diversity and cohesion and the things that unify us in this state.

I also want to thank the previous minister, Minister Stitt, who I believe was still minister when the bill was initially tabled. She and her team have done a power of work to bring this bill to this place. I was reflecting last night in ticking the census, as I suspect everyone in this house did, just what that means and what that reflects about our country, about our state, ticking the box, as I did, that emphasised that I was not born here but also then thinking through what my ancestry was and being very well aware that my ticking of a number of different boxes was replicated by so many of my constituents in Greenvale. I talked about this in my first speech: I represent a community where well over 80 per cent of people profess a faith, where a very significant proportion had parents born overseas and where I suspect close to a majority were themselves born overseas. The census indeed will bear the truth of that out.

What all of this means is that we are a truly diverse community. It does not mean we are a separatist community or a community of separate communities; we are a community where diversity of language, of history, of tradition and of ethnic and cultural background is celebrated and underpinned by shared values. I will talk more about those later in my contribution: the kinds of shared values we celebrate at citizenship ceremonies, the shared values of our institutions – our political institutions and our democratic institutions – and our freedoms to express that faith, to express that language and to celebrate that history. There is no dichotomy between multiculturalism and a cohesive Australian identity or cohesive Victorian identity. I think that needs to be called out, particularly in the context of spurious claims about monoculturalism.

I also want to acknowledge some of the previous speakers. The Shadow Minister for Public Transport, who is at the table, and the Minister for Roads and Road Safety I think gave really interesting and worthwhile contributions. I disagree, for what it is worth, with the member for Bulleen’s characterisation of why we got to this place with the need for this bill, but he made some very compelling points about the history of multiculturalism in this state, reflecting that the Chinese community, for example, has played a very significant part in our community for well over 170 years. There are markers of that wherever you look: the areas where I formerly taught and worked, like Stawell, Ararat and Ballarat, have significant Chinese cemeteries which are a fascinating insight into what our state looked like 170 years ago. It is reflected as well at the Museum of Chinese Australian History just down the road. I was struck, as others may have been, by reading an excellent article by Andrew Wu in the Age yesterday talking about the history of Chinese involvement in Australian Rules football, which is perhaps underappreciated. I think it speaks to the way in which waves of migration have come to this country, come to this state and embedded themselves in the things which we define intuitively and implicitly as quintessentially Australian.

There is no dichotomy between those who have come from overseas and those who are Australian. There is not, there should not and there must not be a tension between people’s background identity and their pride as Australians and Victorians. The intention of the bill is to support and celebrate that and ensure that all aspects of government have a responsibility for that so Multicultural Victoria as an entity and the multicultural coordinator general and their team can be empowered to work across government to support the Premier in both developing and implementing a multicultural strategy in this state.

It is important that we do refresh the legislative framework for our multicultural settings. The member for Bulleen and the member for Box Hill spoke about some of the challenges that we have encountered in Victoria as a consequence of international conflicts of deep hurt that manifests within communities, playing out as conflict locally. My work as a local representative, as a member of this government and as a member of this Parliament has been to support communities locally, to seek to build bridges and to seek to overcome division. But I think our frameworks have been tested. The feedback that I have heard in supporting the minister and the Premier in a lot of community consultations subsequent to the Lekakis review is that communities, irrespective of where they have come from and irrespective of their faith, want better opportunities to work together. They want better intercultural forums and interfaith forums, and that is what Multicultural Victoria will be empowered to do: to build those bridges to ensure that conflicts from other parts of the world which cause acute hurt and pain to so many people in our state – I am acutely conscious of that – do not undermine the cohesive community that generations of people and indeed generations of the VMC and its precursors have built in this state. I think that should be a bipartisan endeavour. I hope that the words of the shadow minister at the table are correct in that there will not be opposition to this bill, but I do note that there has been some equivocation about the role of the multicultural coordinator general in that some have sought to politicise that appointment. I hope that does not transcend support for the bill itself.

I want to briefly talk about what this means for my own electorate of Greenvale. It is a community where so many people have come from overseas, often as a consequence of war and conflict and not of their own choosing. They have come to our country and they have built new homes because of persecution on account of those aspects of identity that the census asked us all about yesterday: where they come from, where their families come from, what their faith is. They have not been able to practice and express those freely in other parts of the world, yet in Australia they can and in Victoria they can and they must be able to. The people who have made their home in my community and I suspect in yours as well, Acting Speaker O’Keeffe, are so proud of where they have come from. They are so proud of their history. yet I have never met people more proud to be Australian. Citizenship ceremonies are a fantastic exemplification of that. Barbecues hosted by the Assyrian, the Chaldean, the Turkish and the Lebanese communities on Australia Day are another powerful exemplification of that. The diversity that is present in my community is writ large across Victoria more broadly, but it is important that government policy settings also support that.

I do want to talk a little bit about the contentious debate that seems to have sprung up around the very essence of multiculturalism. I want to assert really strongly that multiculturalism and national unity are not opposites. Victoria and our country more broadly demonstrate conclusively that people can maintain different cultures, languages, religions and traditions while belonging to one nation, as it were ‍– one cohesive nation. It is an irony, I think – and a tragic one – that a political party has sought to appropriate that language and to suggest that it is a representation of one nation, when it clearly has no idea what that nation actually looks like. They have no idea what our suburbs look like. They have no idea what the compositions of our churches, our mosques and our temples look like. They have no idea about the pride that people in those settings of community have in their country and in our state. To see that being sought to be undermined by a particular political party is, I think, absolutely abhorrent and indeed tragic and just so incredibly ignorant about what makes our country special. The pride that people from diverse backgrounds have in our country and in our state – I share that with them as a migrant to this country. My family came here from the other side of the world to build a new life and a better home. It has given us so many opportunities, many, many times over. It is a special country because of the things that it allows us all to celebrate: our faith, our history, our language and our culture. Diversity is not an exception to Australian life; it is part of Australian life.

As I say at citizenship ceremonies, shared values provide the foundation for diversity. A collective belief in our democratic institutions is so important. Respect for the rule of law and for the freedoms I talked about – freedom of faith, freedom of opportunity and freedom to express that identity – is paramount, as indeed is mutual respect between people from different ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds. That is why I support the bill on the table, because I think Multicultural Victoria and the institutional framework that it will build will strengthen those opportunities for exchange and for mutual respect to be built. This bill will ensure that this is sustained for the long term.

 Gabrielle DE VIETRI (Richmond) (15:27): I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate on the Multicultural Victoria Amendment Bill 2026. Multiculturalism in Victoria has been embedded at all levels of government. Previously, the policy framework has been geared towards achieving genuine social cohesion and lower levels of conflict and tension. However, we have seen this landscape changing in recent times and not for the better. One in three of us uses a language other than English at home, and nearly half of Victorians were born overseas or have a parent who was. Victoria is a melting pot of people who speak different languages, practise different faiths, come from different cultures and carry different histories and traditions, and that all adds value and richness and colour to this state. Migrants and multicultural communities are our neighbours, our families, our friends and our co-workers. They are us. I have nothing but respect for the deep histories of the people who have found themselves living on this unceded Aboriginal land, often through complex and sometimes traumatic pathways.

My own journey weaves the history of British convicts and Lutheran colonists. My grandfather was a persecuted Jew from Odessa, and my grandmother fled deeply Catholic Italy with a child out of wedlock to find herself in 1960s regional Victoria, where Italians like my dad were the target of discrimination that, luckily, my generation no longer faces. We all bring stories and histories. Twenty-nine per cent of the community in my electorate, across suburbs like Collingwood, Fitzroy and Richmond, was born overseas. We are all the richer for the waves of migration that have brought people to live and work here, including from Vietnam, the Horn of Africa, China, Ireland, Italy and India. You make our community the special place that it is. Together, we are all part of making Victoria home.

The bill before us comes at yet another challenging time – a time when we are seeing a fracturing of our community and of social, cultural and faith cohesion. The social fabric of multiculturalism is being torn apart by bad-faith actors, far-right extremists and political figures like One Nation’s Pauline Hanson, who scapegoat migrants for political point-scoring. We are seeing growing wealth inequality and a cost-of-living crisis that is putting enormous pressure on people across our communities. Housing is increasingly unaffordable. The cost of groceries and bills continues to rise, while multinational corporations and billionaires are making record profits. The far right tells us to blame our neighbours – those who have come from other countries, those who might have a different accent or a different skin colour to us – for making life more difficult. But what One Nation do not tell you is that they are backed by the same corporations and billionaires who are making record profit off people’s pain. Billionaires like Gina Rinehart fund One Nation to peddle their racist rhetoric. They blame migrants for a system that is failing people to distract from the fact that governments have let big corporations and billionaires make housing unaffordable, wages stagnate and simply existing more expensive.

There has never been a more important time for governments to step in and support our multicultural communities, but as far right extremism grows we are seeing a disturbing rise in racist attacks against multicultural communities. This has not come out of nowhere. One Nation and rising racism have filled a void left by Labor and the Liberals’ failure to listen to people and take action on the housing and cost-of-living crises. For decades Labor and Liberal governments have exacerbated material inequality by privatising our public corporations and our essential services and by failing to invest in the things that Victorians need. Governments have the power to reverse this, to address the needs of the people who are struggling and to make sure that everyone has what they need to lead a decent life. We can build, not demolish, public housing. We can introduce rent controls to make renting affordable. We can bring down housing bills by investing in renewable energy and moving away from dirty, polluting, expensive coal and gas. We can stop the supermarkets from price gouging. We can make public transport and dental care free. We can fully fund our public schools and early childhood education. Because the Greens are not funded –

Mathew Hilakari: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, this may be a wideranging bill, but I do not know if it goes to supermarket pricing, so maybe we could bring the member back to the point.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Kim O’Keeffe): Could the member please come back to the bill.

Gabrielle DE VIETRI: Our multicultural communities are struggling with the cost of living because the supermarkets are price-gouging us at every single turn. Because the Greens are not backed by the billionaires and the big corporations that line the pockets of Labor, the Liberals and One Nation, we can stand up to their powerful interests, we can make them pay their fair share and we can make life better for everyone else. When underinvestment reduces people’s quality of life, it becomes easier for One Nation, the Liberals and Labor to allow people to blame multicultural communities for the housing crisis, for pressure on public services and for problems created by governments and powerful corporations. The Greens reject this, and we call it for what it is: racism. It is in this context that this bill is before us today.

The Victorian multicultural review led by George Lekakis AO considered whether Victoria’s multicultural settings, institutions and frameworks were fit for purpose and how they could be strengthened. The answer from this report is clear. The multicultural community for too long has been left to languish and defend itself without consistent and meaningful government support. George Lekakis and the multicultural experts advisory group undertook an extensive effort to listen to communities, to understand the challenges facing Victoria’s multicultural framework and to identify where it needs to be strengthened and protected. The review made 41 recommendations, and this bill delivers on some of those recommendations but certainly not all. Once again this government fails to really bring forth meaningful change for multicultural communities.

The review challenged how our political institutions interact with our culturally diverse communities. All too often governments take a top-down approach with multicultural communities. Governments and government agencies would do well to work with communities, to listen and to be prepared to acknowledge that communities may actually know best what is good for them, rather than telling them what is best for them. The Greens acknowledge that this bill is a step in the right direction, but it only addresses some of the review’s recommendations that require legislative change and it simply does not go far enough.

This bill also brings together the functions of two separate bodies: the Victorian Multicultural Commission and the departmental functions of the multicultural and multifaith Victoria portfolio. In particular it does not deliver on the review’s recommendation to appoint a standalone minister for multicultural affairs or that the portfolio remain within the Department of Premier and Cabinet, with ongoing oversight from the Premier. Multicultural affairs should be treated as a matter of priority and not siloed. If this truly is a whole-of-government responsibility, then every minister and every department should consider how its decisions impact multicultural communities. Strong leadership from the Premier and a dedicated minister would give multicultural affairs the authority and the accountability needed to drive change across the government.

This bill also establishes a new statutory entity, Multicultural Victoria, led by an independent voice, the multicultural coordinator general, supported by two deputies, including one from regional Victoria. The Greens welcome the bill’s creation of a multicultural community advisory group to advise the new authority and its commitment to youth representation and diversity. However, the bill does not adopt the review’s preferred method of relying on existing regional and metropolitan ethnic community councils and their networks, instead using regional engagement groups. It also introduces whole-of-government multicultural planning and reporting through a statutory authority, including a multicultural strategy and departmental multicultural action and inclusion plans. The bill also requires certain public sector entities to acquire interpreting and translating services from VITS LanguageLoop.

While this bill does make some important steps towards strengthening multicultural governance, the Greens will continue to advocate for a full implementation of the review’s recommendations and for a multicultural framework that genuinely listens to and works with communities.

 Meng Heang TAK (Clarinda) (15:37): I am proud to rise today and contribute in support of the Multicultural Victoria Amendment Bill 2026. I am very proud to be part of a government that recognises that whoever you are and wherever you come from, whatever language you speak and whatever you believe in, you deserve to be safe in our state, free of hate. I am very proud of that. Our diversity is one of our greatest strengths here in Victoria. We come from hundreds of different backgrounds and from all walks of life, and I would like to join the member for Greenvale in talking about the waves of migration to our state a little bit later in my contribution, because I know I am part of that story. I remember my own citizenship ceremony back in the late 1990s; it was a very proud day for me. I am very grateful to have become a citizen of this great country and this great state. It is a country that values democracy, human rights, diversity and freedom, a country that values fairness and equality. Our country and our state in particular are one of the world’s greatest multicultural success stories. We treasure and celebrate our diversity.

I would like to go on, but I just would like to pause for one second to also acknowledge my predecessor Hong Lim, who fought so hard for our multicultural community. I cannot imagine back in 1996, when he was first elected to this place as the first ever MP from an Asian background to be elected to represent Labor’s most diverse multicultural community – and remember, back in 1996 it was not far from the abolition of the White Australia policy – him making his pathway to Parliament from being an overseas student under the Colombo Plan. Not long after he arrived in Australia, Cambodia was under attack by communism, and he could not reconnect or connect with his family back home for a long, long time, so I would like to commend him on that front.

In fact our diversity is essential to the success and vibrancy of our state, and today with this bill we have another opportunity to reflect on the amazing contributions and the amazing stories of the many different Victorians and communities and to celebrate our diversity, which makes each of us unique and makes us one community. These are not just significant contributions in terms of culture, tradition, dance and food but vital everyday contributions to the community in business, academia, industry, skills and the like. We are so lucky that Victoria is such a vibrant and wonderful place, and we are so thankful for all of these contributions and experiences which enrich our state.

But as we have heard, not everybody in the broader political debate at the moment feels the same. Not everyone is thankful for those contributions and that experience. On our side of the house we stand proudly with our multicultural community. We value, support and celebrate each and every single Victorian, and we do not pick and choose. We will never stand with someone who does not see the value and the beauty in these contributions and experiences which make our state what it is. Our commitment to multicultural Victoria continues here today with this bill, an important bill that will amend the Multicultural Victoria Act 2011 to deliver on the recommendations made in Victoria’s multicultural review, led by George Lekakis AO and the expert advisory group, and our commitment made in the government’s public response to the review. Furthermore, the bill will enable implementation of cabinet-endorsed language service reform, which includes assisting critical areas of government works with LanguageLoop. I must say it was fortunate that I served one term as board director and had George Lekakis actually chair VITS LanguageLoop from 2014 to 2018 in that space.

In December 2024 the Premier and the Minister for Multicultural Affairs announced a suite of measures to address increasing challenges to social cohesion and to strengthen community harmony. These included a commitment to delivering a targeted review to examine Victorian multicultural policy, institutions and personnel. The review was led by George Lekakis AO, along with an expert advisory group. I also know that George Lekakis did a fantastic job, knowing him through the multicultural community in the south-east but most importantly from when he was chair of VITS LanguageLoop and I was fortunate to be part of that institution. It provided over 150 peak body and community groups 57 consultation sessions, providing an opportunity to examine how multicultural institutions, settings and policies are operating and recommending ways in which the government can enhance its support of Victoria’s multicultural and multifaith community. I was privileged and lucky to take part in that consultation process in the south-east.

There were 41 recommendations made, and we have before us here an initial suite of actions, which, as we have heard, include establishing a new statutory entity, Multicultural Victoria, a leadership and advisory group and of course rigorous whole-of-government strategic planning and reporting for multicultural and multifaith outcomes, embedding community safety planning following adverse local and international events with multicultural and multifaith communities and recognising language services as an essential service. I would like to focus on that last point, which is very close to my heart. As a former interpreter when I was at uni and an SBS broadcaster in Cambodia in Khmer language programming for 10 years, I know the essential value of language services. Whether we are talking about efficiency in terms of the operation of our schools, hospitals, aged care facilities or court systems, interpreters are vital in this space. With our ever-evolving cultural diversity, interpreters are vital, and I commend the government for previous funding commitments for interpreters to meet the increasing demand in my electorate and across the state, for these changes that we have before us here today and also for the newly emerging communities, such as the Burmese community, that have so many dialects that we might not even have found a proper professional interpreter. But things go on.

I am very proud to be part of a government that commits to putting more resources toward our language schools. My three kids are actually at Saturday language school, and I can tell you it is the biggest investment that we have at Westall Secondary that kids from migrant backgrounds, refugees and also those who are second generation can attend the language school because we want to keep our cultures close to our hearts.

I would like to conclude my remarks here. I am so very passionate about representing the elderly members of our community, the older residents of the south-east that have made countless contributions to our state that enrich cultural identity and history. In later life, everyone should live with dignity and comfort, and families should also have peace of mind that their loved ones receive proper, appropriate care.

I just would like to conclude by saying that back in 1996, when I first arrived here and landed at Westall English Language Centre, I did not know much about the service delivery provided to people with migrant and refugee backgrounds, and I know that the member for Point Cook also knows very well the Westall Enterprise Migrant Hostel, which welcomed people with refugee and migrant backgrounds, in my case, in the 1970s. We saw a wave of migrations from South-East Asia, from Vietnam and also from Cambodia, people who have now made and continue to make significant contributions to our community, representing not only the voice of the many voices of Victoria but the all-important voice that we cannot pick and choose. I would like to conclude by saying that it is exciting, this bill, and I commend the minister for bringing this bill forward. I commend those on this side of the house for proudly standing with our multicultural community. We do not pick and choose, and we will never stand with someone who does not see the value and contributions of our multicultural community, which make our state what it is. I commend Multicultural Victoria, and I commend the bill to the house.

 Nicole WERNER (Warrandyte) (15:46): I rise to speak on the Multicultural Victoria Amendment Bill 2026. The bill abolishes the Victorian Multicultural Commission, the VMC, and replaces it with a new independent body, Multicultural Victoria, led by a coordinator general. As has been stated on this side of the house, we will not be opposing this bill but will be moving amendments, reasonable amendments, and I will go through those details in a moment. To the bill at hand, we will not be opposing it, because it does vindicate a position on this side of the house that we have held for years, because it was a Liberal and Nationals government that set up the Multicultural Commission as an independent statutory authority.

Just recently I met again with the Centre for Multicultural Youth in my role as the Shadow Minister for Youth and spoke with Carmel Guerra there, who is the CEO, who spoke of her support for this bill and for this change, noting that it does go back to the old model of what it used to be and noting that this is a good change. There is widespread support for this bill. In fact it was Daniel Andrews, the then Premier, who took away the independence in 2015 when he pulled the commission into the Department of Premier and Cabinet. Here we are, 11 years later, with Labor legislating its way back to where it started. That is the issue that I will raise in a moment when I get to the many things that I want to say, because there is a lot to say not just about this bill but about multiculturalism in our state more broadly. The issue here is what the Labor government has done in politicising multicultural communities and in politicising even the structure of the Victorian Multicultural Commission and bringing it into the Department of Premier and Cabinet.

Multiculturalism is important to me. It is important to my community. In fact in my community, in the seat of Warrandyte, roughly one-fifth of the electorate comes from Chinese ancestry, me included. So being such a multicultural seat, particularly in areas like Doncaster East, Donvale and Ringwood North, this is something that is so important to my community now. Again, I have said it many times before, but I note that I am the first Asian Australian woman elected to the Victorian Parliament in the Legislative Assembly. This is something of such value to me and something I am prepared to fight for.

Apart from that group in my seat, there are also a large number of Iranians in my electorate. In fact it is the electorate of Bulleen that has the highest number of Iranians in any electorate across Australia, and then it is the electorate of Warrandyte that actually boasts the second largest population of Iranians in Australia in their electorate. There is a proud Iranian community in both of our electorates. When I think about multiculturalism in practice, I think about this community. I think about a community defined by resilience, work ethic and a deep belief in freedom – Iranian Australians who run local small businesses at a remarkable rate because they believe in providing for their families and building something of their own. Many of them were doctors, engineers and lawyers back in Iran, and they walked away from those qualifications simply so their children could grow up free. They came here for safety, yet sadly, too many have not found it.

Iranian Australians in my electorate have raised with me the fact that they have faced intimidation, threats and harassment linked to the very regime they fled. In Doncaster East a local family restaurant of an Iranian family, my good friend Shaz, was vandalised. Flags were torn down and the windows smashed. That same night her father’s car was attacked and he was told to go back to his own country all because this family dared to speak against the ayatollah’s regime. Shaz said afterwards that she did not come to Australia to live in fear again. Yet for much of last year many in the Iranian diaspora have felt that fear. That fear does not belong here, it does not belong in Victoria and it does not belong in my community. The Liberals and Nationals stand with the Iranian community. We stand with those who speak out against the regime, and we say clearly to anyone who would intimidate them on our own soil that they have picked the wrong country and the wrong community. It will not stand here in Victoria. That is why I was proud to gather a group of Iranian community leaders to meet with the opposition leader Jess Wilson when she recently visited my electorate of Warrandyte to hear directly from the community and community leaders as to the issues that are plaguing the community and the racism and intimidation that they are facing.

Another multicultural community that is so significant to our state is the Vietnamese community, which is hurting over the tragic death of Van Viet Truong. This man was a hero, a good Samaritan who came to the aid of someone else in his community and paid for it with his life. I felt personally very impacted when I read the story of the tragic death of Van Viet Truong, when I read that he was a migrant to this country, in fact a refugee to this country, and the fact that he is a father of two and that he has a grandson that he has left behind. I thought of, honestly, my own father. I thought of my own father as a migrant to this country and of the Asian community at large that have often reached out to me and said, ‘Nicole, we feel like you are our voice in this place, that when we see you, we feel seen, that there is someone that actually represents us from within our own community, the Asian Australian community here.’ This is the thing about Asian Australians: they came here for a better life. They are often quiet achievers. They do not speak out; they do not make a fuss. They are small business owners, traders, self-starters and hard workers, and they give back to our community. The Vietnamese community have reached out to me, and I have been speaking to them. In the words of a refugee:

We survived hardship and displacement. We came from a country where speaking up could carry consequences. Our priority was survival, to build a safe life for our families, to work hard, to keep our heads down and to be grateful for the opportunity we had been given.

She said in her own words that speaking out sometimes would carry consequences, so often in the Asian Australian community, when hardship, challenges, racism and these things come, they do not always speak out. They do not always feel like they have the right to. I cannot tell you how many Asian Australians have reached out to me over the course of my three years in Parliament to say, ‘Can you please speak out for our community? Can you please be our voice? Can you please be one of us that speaks out for us?’ It weighs heavy on me that they feel like I, as one of them, am one of the sole voices that represent them and see them and understand their lived experience. That is why I am speaking out today, because this man, who is a hero, a good Samaritan who came to the aid of someone else in his community, paid for it with his life, yet three of the four alleged offenders were put out on bail again because of this weak justice system thanks to this useless Labor government. I can read to you the words of a Vietnamese refugee herself. She says:

My name is Yen, and I am writing to share the concerns I have for my community – as someone of Vietnamese heritage, as a migrant, but most importantly, as an Australian.

My family was incredibly fortunate to come to Australia in 1996.

… Australia was a dream.

I was a refugee baby, born in Hong Kong after my parents fled Vietnam because they feared for our safety under the communist regime.

She goes on to say:

… Australia did give us a second chance.

We came to a country that we believed stood for … diversity, fairness, justice and protection.

And it does not feel like this anymore. She says:

Families are frightened.

And communities are asking a very simple question:

Where is the accountability?

The recent case involving Mr Van Viet Truong has particularly affected the Vietnamese community –

who she speaks on behalf of –

and many others across Victoria.

…

His death has left many people asking a deeply concerning question …

What do we do when someone needs help? She says:

I am asking our elected representatives to listen.

Listen to the fear.

Listen to the frustration.

Listen to the people who feel the system is no longer working effectively enough to keep their communities safe.

…

… we need governments that listen when ordinary Australians say that they are concerned.

I am asking you to take these concerns into Parliament and give a voice to … our community who may not know how to advocate for themselves.

I say this loudly and clearly today: whilst we on this side are in this house, we will always stand up for the quiet Australian. We will always stand up for migrant communities. We will always stand up for multicultural Victoria. We will always stand up and speak our truth. We will always stand up, and while the racesplaining goes on over there, I stand here as a woman of lived experience to say that we are on the side of multicultural communities. Say what you want, Labor. Say what you say to my face. Call us racist one more time, I dare you. I will not stand for it. We will not tolerate the racism from Labor or the politicisation of multiculturalism from Labor. We will not stand for it. I stand on the side and we stand on the side of multiculturalism in this place.

 Luba GRIGOROVITCH (Kororoit – Minister for Youth, Minister for Carers and Volunteers) (15:57): I move:

That the debate be now adjourned.

Motion agreed to and debate adjourned.

Ordered that debate be adjourned until later this day.