Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of the things I am most proud of, as the member for Hotham, is that I represent the most multicultural suburb in Australia. It is a place called Springvale in the south eastern part of Melbourne. Would you believe that 68 per cent of Springvale residents were born in a country other than Australia? Often I say to my constituents that people around this country talk a lot about Australian multiculturalism but in Springvale we live it every day. This is an extraordinary place where people from all over the world live in harmony in this beautiful community and it is full of people who are genuinely grateful that Australia has been a welcoming country and that they have been able to make a life here.

Multiculturalism in Springvale has not just sprung up and worked without reason. There is a group of organisations that have helped people over a long period of time adjust to a new life in Australia. One is the Springvale Community Aid & Advice Bureau and I want to talk specifically about this organisation for a moment. You can imagine in a community like this that the main clients of this organisation tend to be people who come from countries other than Australia, so often they speak different languages. It is an extraordinary service they offer, including financial counselling, settlement services, emergency relief, lots of youth services, for the young people in our local area, and even job placement. It is astounding to me that in November last year, the federal government made an announcement—really out of nowhere—that cut access to interpreter services for this incredible local organisation. One in eight of their clients presents needing access to the interpreter service to get the help that they need, and the federal government has taken funding away from this essential service.

I want to quickly talk about a couple of people who represent the type of clients here. The organisation has told me about one woman with five children who was fleeing a domestic violence relationship trying to find help and she needed the help of an interpreter service, and this is something the federal government is taking away. Another example is a Burmese family who recently arrived in Australia who had built up a lot of utility bills. They could not read and write and they needed the help of this organisation to get them out of their financial situation, again needing interpreter services. To identify this as a saving is utterly ridiculous. The interpreter service is a gateway to all the other services that this organisation provides, and I want to call on the federal government to restore this funding that is essential to this organisation doing the work that it does so well.

We cannot forget that Australian multiculturalism works because we have invested in things that make it work like the SBS, interpreter services and settlement services that help people coming to this country build a fruitful and productive life. The interpreter services must be restored to this organisation to help it continue this important work.