Thursday, 23 March 2023

Australian–Filipino Community Services

Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (16:21): (146) The action I seek is from the Minister for Multicultural Affairs in the other place. I would like the minister to please meet with me and the leadership of the Australian–Filipino Community Services based in Doveton, known as AFCS. The government has provided them with a social worker to assist in their mission to ensure the wellbeing of Filipino migrants. However, this funding expires in June, and the government has not undertaken to continue it.

At the multicultural gala dinner and at the Casey city awards I had the wonderful opportunity to meet with the managing director and the chair of AFCS along with members of the organisation, who told me about the wonderful work that AFCS does. In particular it was heartwarming to hear how AFCS had made use of their funding to reach out to many young people who developed mental health issues during the lockdown periods of the pandemic and isolated elderly Filipino people who do not have the language skills or capacity to access services in the community.

I completely commend these people and this community organisation to the house because they have been doing wonderful work with their social worker, using someone that has the ability to understand the culture and the language to go out and facilitate and change the lives of many people. They have found Filipino people who cannot speak a lot of English, who are elderly, whose partners that were Australian have died, and they have been able to reach out to them and to help them to access services that they did not know existed in this country. It is incredibly important that we continue this good work and that this social worker can continue to be funded.

In fact this social worker, because she has been a social worker, has been able to have students that are social workers come under her for placement, and through that they have been able to extend the work that they are doing. To lose the only social worker that they have in this organisation would be absolutely detrimental. It goes beyond the south-east. They have been working beyond that area into regional areas because the Filipino community live in many different parts of Victoria now. I do commend this organisation to the house, and I do request the minister to please look into the funding for this social worker so they can continue the good work.