Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How we as a nation seek to meet the challenge of social inclusion today will have a dramatic effect upon the next generations, who will inherit our country tomorrow. It is with an acceptance of the importance of this challenge that I seek to inform the House tonight of the Northern Community Hub, a project developed by the Geelong Ethnic Communities Council—also known as Diversitat. It is a project which I believe may yet prove to impart a model for all Australian societies seeking to implement strategies and devices orientated toward greater social inclusion and cultural understanding in our communities.

The Northern Community Hub is an initiative borne of over 10 years of research and planning on the part of Diversitat. Its fundamental aim is to provide support services to multicultural and disadvantaged communities in Geelong’s northern region at a yet-to-be-constructed multipurpose facility which will be the product of unified support and funding from all three tiers of government. Such unified support is not only a reflection of the importance of this project to the suburbs of North Geelong, and in turn the Greater Geelong region, but also a supportive acknowledgment of the methodology and approach of Diversitat to its past and current service areas, and this project in particular.

Diversitat, as its name suggests, is an organisation that aids the diverse multicultural society of Greater Geelong, representing over 38 local interest and community groups, promoting social inclusion and cultural awareness through various services and support schemes. A synoptic observation of their programs shows an array of initiatives covering areas such as immigration; welfare and community development programs; aged care services; arts and event management; youth, training and employment services; promotion of organic living and creative recycling, and management of Geelong’s only community radio station, the Pulse.

The Northern Community Hub shall build upon what is an impressive performance history on the part of Diversitat, using its established position within the community to draw together the necessary resources to give what is an ambitious project every possible chance of success. There is also historical significance in the location earmarked to accommodate the project, the former site of a migrant hostel which now houses Spanish, Filipino and German social club rooms. It is also a stone’s throw from the expanding Wathaurong Aboriginal Cooperative, as well as other community service organisation, providing close proximity to the populous it shall service and the community groups with which it shall work in tandem.

In keeping with Diversitat’s vision of empowering individuals and communities to reach their full potential, the hub shall be a varied institution seeking to meet an array of public and community needs, and supplying an equally diverse range of benefits. In the words of Diversitat, it shall seek to encourage greater participation in social, learning, recreational, cultural and civic activities for all age groups, from youth through to aged care in the area. It shall improve the surrounding environment by providing an identifiable piece of community infrastructure that will contribute to the renewal and regeneration of the immediate area—a beacon for civic pride in neighbourhoods weighted by the disparity of socioeconomic status and too often bereft of this type of investment.

The hub will aim to address some of the needs of an ageing population—particularly the migrant population of the 1950s and 1960s, which constitutes a large portion of the local populous—by providing improved facilities and increased capacity to assist in the development of planned activity and social interaction programs. It shall increase patron safety, particularly after hours, at the existing DW Hope site, through greater use of the space, with an anticipated increase in daily patronage, as it houses much needed meeting and social interaction space for the region’s newer, smaller ethnic communities, who do not have their own established facilities—such as persons of Sudanese, Liberian, Chinese, Thai, Indian, Indonesian, Bosnian and Burmese heritage.

Indeed, the hub will provide a focal point for the Geelong region. It is an institution through which a community can channel its efforts of seeking to understand the diverse cultures that inhabit its neighbourhoods, and a place at which those cultures can come together to understand the history and dynamics of the community they now call home. It is a project deserving of the commitment of all tiers of government and, as previously noted, it has received that support. For its part, the City of Greater Geelong donated the land title for the site on which the hub will be built. The Brumby state government has committed $1 million in funding and philanthropic organisations have contributed over $150,000 to date, whilst the Rudd government’s commitment of $1.5 million announced in the budget a fortnight ago ensures the project is now fully funded and ready to commence. (Time expired)