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State government initiatives - Multiculturalism in practice Victoria

George Papadopoulos.

George Papadopoulos on the Ethnic Affairs Commission in Victoria, and the belief of needing structures within government.

Created:

1994

Date Added:

18 July 2002

Source:

Interview for Making Multicultural Australia, 1994.

Format:

mov (Quicktime);

File size:

--

Length:

1min 10sec

Transcript

GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS
Former Deputy Chair, Victorian Ethnic Affairs Commission

The Ethnic Affairs Commission of Victoria - it came in, in '83. Its origins were back in 1972. And already at that stage some of us had a fair belief that you needed structures within government to reflect upon and analyse social policy issues. But you also needed highly specific planning and other mechanisms which reflected the community’s values and the changes that had taken place. So one of the things we suggested back in 1972 or 3 was an Ethnic Affairs Committee. And some of us hung onto that as an idea and pushed it forward at different times.

It was eventually picked up as Labor Party policy in Victoria, particularly when we had a very strong ethnic affairs advisory structure within the Labor Party. And it was in the 1981-82 Party policy. When the Cain Government was elected in 1982, Peter Spyker became the Minister and one of the things that he was entrusted with, was to do an implementation of the Party’s policy in the ethnic affairs area, and that included provision for a Commission.

Interview for Making Multicultural Australia, 1994.