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- 31 May 2001
Newcastle Migrant Resource Centre
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Page: 14200
Mr GAUDRY (Newcastle—Parliamentary Secretary) [5.36 p.m.]: Today it is a pleasure to join with the honourable member for Wallsend, who is in the chair as Acting-Speaker, in celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the establishment of the Migrant Resource Centre in Chaucer Street in my electorate. On Monday we celebrated with the Federal Minister for Immigration, Ethnic Affairs and Reconciliation, Philip Ruddock; the shadow Minister for Immigration, Con Sciacca; the Lord Mayor of Newcastle, John Tate; the Federal member for Newcastle, Allan Morris; the Deputy Lord Mayor, Councillor Barbara Gaudry; other councillors and a huge number of members of the multicultural groups that now live in Newcastle and the Hunter Valley. It was a real tribute to see the dedicated staff of the Migrant Resource Centre, under the leadership of Violetta Walsh and her deputy, Lula Tantos, and members of the various communities celebrating. We were entertained during the afternoon by Spanish-speaking youngsters in a group called Tonatiuh, who performed a cultural dance. The South Pacific Island Culture in Education [SPICE] team brought together the Samoan and Tongan members of the community who gave the most exciting rendition of dance and song.
That is only part of the multiculturalism we saw in the Fiesta and Cultural Stomp. Honourable members should recognise the importance of the Migrant Resource Centre in assisting those groups within our community in their cultural pursuits and particularly giving them access and understanding of a wide range of programs provided by State, local and Federal services which are provided, not only through Federal funding, the major source, but through State funding programs as well. The centre can access the Hunter-based rural information campaign and the specialist migrant placement officer program, both of which are funded through the State Government. A huge range of programs are available, as the President, Dr Henry Chan, mentioned in his speech.
Dr Chan referred to Management Skills in the Community Sector which, during three years, assisted a large number of mature migrant women to develop competencies. Many of those women continue in valuable and productive employment to this day from a program run by the resource centre. The centre had a pivotal role in providing recovery services to the many communities following the earthquake in 1989. The centre initiated the rural strategy, which acknowledged the needs of rural and isolated migrant communities. The Migrant Resource Centre is the only centre of its kind north of the Hawkesbury. Its catchment area goes right to the Queensland border and out to the west. It provides a marvellous service to the people.
Under the Building Better Cities program, with Federal Government funding two houses were built near the centre in Everton Street. This was a first in providing on-arrival accommodation for refugees outside the metropolitan area. This has been a very important program in assisting people who have come to this country to escape persecution and possible death in their homelands. The centre promotes productive diversity as a critical plank in the economic benefits of Australia's multiculturalism. It had a very intense and highly emotional involvement in the Safe Haven initiative in Singleton, in assisting people who were seeking asylum in Australia at a time of intense conflict in the Balkans. This program has been very valuable to our community. I must mention the tributes paid on the day, in the International Year of Volunteers, to the lengthy volunteer service of so many people to this valuable centre. There could not be a more telling example of volunteerism than in the work being undertaken by the Migrant Resource Centre in Newcastle. I congratulate each and every one of those persons.
Mr FACE (Charlestown—Minister for Gaming and Racing, and Minister Assisting the Premier on Hunter Development) [5.41 p.m.]: I am happy to speak once again on this matter and congratulate the honourable member for Newcastle, whose electorate hosts the Migrant Resource Centre. I commend him for the interest that both he and his wife have taken in the centre over the years of its existence, even before he became a member of this Parliament. Today the honourable member alluded to the changing nature of the centre since its inception in 1981. It is unfortunate that it was not until 1981 that it came into being, bearing in mind that the Hunter had been welcoming immigrants since 1949.
I attended a junior high school in the 1950s that had a large number of young people who could not speak English. Those students in our class were a lot older than we were merely because they could not speak English. They had terrible difficulties. I, probably more than anybody in Newcastle, am acutely aware of those difficulties because we were all thrown in together in my junior high school, to come out as fodder for trades at the end of the day. In that period those young people were mainly from Europe. I was not present at the performance that took place recently, because I was out of the district, but it involved Asian and South-East Asian people. There were no people from the Pacific nations many years ago. Those people certainly had things a lot easier then.
Luckily, with the change in government in 1976, the Wran Government pursued multicultural policies. The establishment of the Migrant Resource Centre made life a lot easier for those newcomers. As I said earlier in response to the comments made by the honourable member for Wallsend, the centre had a better understanding of those within the region and was better able to deal with them, rather than have them called wogs and Balts and all sorts of inappropriate names, as there was a tendency to do in those days because of a lack of understanding. I congratulate the Migrant Resource Centre, Dr Henry Chan, and all the volunteers who have supported the centre over the past 20 years.
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