Victorian Government report on multicultural affairs 2023-24

It is my privilege to present the Victorian Government report on Multicultural Affairs 2023–24. This year has been one of significant progress, borne out of equally significant challenges. The Victorian Government is committed to ensuring everyone feels safe, respected, supported and celebrated – without exception.

In 2023–24, the Victorian Government committed $77.5 million across 4 years, including $69.7 million in election commitments for programs, initiatives and communications activities that support our multicultural and multifaith communities.

A total of $40 million was dedicated to supporting the development of and upgrades
to cultural and community hubs, ensuring safe and accessible spaces for multicultural groups to gather and connect.

Victorians were also encouraged to celebrate and share their cultures through festivals, religious observances, and community events, fostering greater cross-cultural understanding and participation through a $12 million investment in the Multicultural Festivals and Events program.

In our commitment to standing together against hate speech and violent extremism,
$6 million has been dedicated to encouraging individuals, organisations, communities, government and institutions to prevent and tackle antisemitism and Islamophobia.

A further $3 million was also provided to continue delivering the Victorian African Communities Action Plan, ensuring targeted support to African communities through leadership programs, employment initiatives, and youth engagement activities.

As we look ahead, it is encouraging to see Victorians engaging through festivals, community initiatives, and days of religious observances, reaffirming the strength of
our cultural and linguistic diversity.

I’d like to extend my gratitude to the Victorian Multicultural Commission for their dedication and commitment to advocating for our diverse communities.

I also wish to acknowledge the remarkable contributions of the many culturally and linguistically diverse organisations across Victoria. Their passion for preserving and sharing their culture and heritage enriches the broader community and strengthens our multicultural identity.

Finally, I would like to thank all government departments and staff who have contributed to this report. I look forward to further strengthening our engagement with multicultural communities, supporting the implementation of Victoria’s Anti Racism Strategy, and contributing to the richness of our state’s diversity.

Ingrid Stitt MP
Minister for Multicultural Affairs

This report fulfils the Victorian Government’s requirement of the Multicultural Victoria Act 2011 (Vic).

The Act requires government departments to report annually to the Minister for Multicultural Affairs and to the Victorian Parliament. They must report on programs and initiatives that support Victoria’s multicultural community.

Table 1 lists legislative and policy documents that guide the government’s mission to build an inclusive, engaged and cohesive Victoria.

Table 1: Victoria's multicultural frameworks

The Multicultural Affairs outcomes framework² sets out the Victorian Government’s approach to multiculturalism.

The framework groups programs and initiatives according to 5 goals (Table 2).

Table 2: Goals of the whole of government multicultural affairs outcomes framework

Language is important and can change over time. Words can have different meanings for different people.

We recognise the diversity of First Peoples, communities and culture throughout Victoria. While the terms ‘Koorie’ or ‘Koori’ are commonly used to describe First Peoples of southeast Australia, we use the terms ‘First Peoples’ and ‘Aboriginal’ to include all people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who live in Victoria.

The term ‘multicultural community’ refers to the vast number of diverse cultural and ethnic groups in Victoria.

The term ‘multifaith community’ refers to the diverse faith groups in Victoria.

The words ‘our’ and ‘we’ in this document refer to the Victorian Government.

The phrase ‘racism and discrimination’ in this document includes all forms of discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, cultural background, country of origin and faith.

Emergencies and disasters have unique challenges for Victorians from multicultural communities. The Victorian Government is working to support these communities to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies.

In particular, we need to make sure multicultural communities can quickly get accurate information in their own languages when disaster strikes. With funding from DFFH, the University of Melbourne led an investigation into Understanding and Improving Machine Translation for Emergency Communications. This project aimed to improve emergency messaging for multicultural communities.

The team provided practical suggestions for reducing problems when using machine translation technology. This work helped to craft better emergency communication for Victoria’s multicultural communities (DFFH: $0.045 million
in 2023–24).

Similarly, Multicultural Emergency Management Initiatives helped build stronger connections with multicultural communities before, during and after emergencies. It helped government work with these communities in ways that respect their cultures and meet their needs (DJCS: $1.5 million in 2023–24).

To date, the project has:

In mid-February 2024, a large storm caused widespread damage to homes and properties across central and eastern Victoria. In the 48 hours during and after the storm, we received more than 4,000 requests for help with damaged buildings and fallen trees. Large areas of Victoria experienced electricity outages, and many homes were without power for several days. Lightning strikes also caused bushfires in western Victoria.

The government provided funding for people affected by these emergencies. The Recovery Support Program offered a single point of contact, providing trauma-informed information and advice. This included helping people access financial and wellbeing support as well as assistance with paperwork and engaging with insurers and builders (DJCS: $3.548 million in 2023–24).

The Recovery Support Program assisted 1,793 households affected by the February 2024 event. Of these, 17 households reported being of multifaith or multicultural background. We provided translated information, including how to access supports.

People from multicultural communities could also access the program using the Emergency Recovery Hotline. This hotline provides information in different languages through the Translating and Interpreting Service.

In 2023–24, the government funded the Cancer Council Victoria (CCV) to partner with organisations serving multicultural communities. This work was part of the Victorian Cancer Screening Framework.

The project aimed to increase awareness and access to cancer screening. It encouraged people from Vietnamese, Hindi and Punjabi speaking communities to access bowel cancer screening.

CCV also ran capacity-building sessions for more than 70 bicultural workers fluent in languages including Hindi, Punjabi, Cantonese, Mandarin, Burmese, Urdu and Haka Chin (DH as part of the $3.6 million Cancer Screening Framework program).

In addition, Bendigo Community Health Services provided cancer support for people from refugee backgrounds. This included around 30 education sessions for just under 300 Karen and Afghan community members. These sessions covered bowel, breast, prostate and cervical cancer and cancer screening. The project included cancer-specific training for bicultural workers working with people from refugee backgrounds. This work aimed to ensure equitable outcomes following cancer diagnosis.

CCV and BreastScreen Victoria also co-developed targeted cancer and cancer-screening resources for the Karen and Afghan communities.

Screening services worked with communities to improve access, such as providing cancer care navigation for Karen and Afghan community members with cancer (DH: $0.4 million in 2023–24).

Another project, DH’s Lactation Support Initiative, supports women from multicultural backgrounds to breastfeed. The initiative worked with the Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA) to provide training and courses for multicultural communities. It also recruited multicultural support mentors.

In 2023–24, 8 representatives took part in training to help their communities. These representatives came from Sri Lankan, Filipino, Vietnamese, Singaporean, Indian and South African backgrounds. The training prepared them to provide peer support and connect new families with qualified lactation consultants. It included linking families to services offered by Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Services.

The initiative also supported local government MCH services to provide staff training and support for lactation consultations. Some MCH services set up new breastfeeding clinics. Others added more sessions in their existing clinics. They also provided educational classes (DH: $1 million in 2023–24).

The Victorian Government undertook targeted initiatives to help our multicultural communities recover from the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2023–24, this included extending mental health support within the COVID-19 response package to multicultural community services. These services were Cabrini Outreach, Asylum Seeker Resource Centre and Foundation House.

The funding allowed Cabrini Outreach to continue operating The Hub. This dedicated facility provides specialised mental health services for people seeking asylum, even if they do not have a Medicare Card. In 2023–24, The Hub offered comprehensive care to more than 250 people from multicultural backgrounds who faced social isolation and psychological distress. The Hub uses a multidisciplinary approach that includes psychiatric assessment and management, counselling and referrals.

This funding also enabled the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre to deliver the Mental Health and Wellbeing Response Program. The program provides comprehensive, multidisciplinary support. It includes psychiatry, mental health, nursing, eye care, immunisations and allied health, as well as support to access medications. In 2023–24, close to 900 people were supported through more than 6,750 appointments.

The government also funded Foundation House to provide more than 7,856 hours of specialist psychiatric and counselling services. These services support people from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds who have experienced torture and trauma (DH: $2.607 million in 2023–24).

DH continued to support community organisations through its COVID-19 Community Grants Program. The program funded multicultural community organisations to share information about testing, vaccination and COVID-19 medication
(DH: $2.036 million in 2023–24).

Grants helped 31 multicultural organisations support communities to prevent COVID-19 and socialise safely. This support reached 41 priority language groups across Victoria.

Culturally appropriate communication creates valuable and meaningful program outcomes. Effective communication helps:

In 2023–24, Victorian Government policy required that departments and agencies spend at least 15% of their campaign media budget on multicultural media (Table 4 and Table 5).⁶

Table 4: Departmental multicultural media campaign expenditure as a percentage of total media campaign expenditure⁷

The Le Mana Pasifika Project helps Pasifika young people and families in Melbourne’s south-east and north-west. Run by the Centre for Multicultural Youth with funding from DFFH, this program aims to improve education and create more opportunities for Pasifika young people aged 12 to 25. The project also helps local services better support these young people. In 2023–24, the project supported more than 1,000 Pasifika young people through culturally appropriate service referrals, mentoring, leadership, employment, education and cultural activities that kept them engaged (DFFH: funded as part of the $10.2 million 2023–24 State Budget’s Investing Early Where It Matters package).

The Early Childhood Language Program from the Department of Education (DE) supported around 7,000 4-year-old children in kindergartens to learn in a language other than English. Children in around 176 kindergartens spent 3 hours each week learning another language. In 21 bilingual kindergartens, children spent 12 hours each week learning in another language. The program employed around 200 language teachers and offered 22 languages including Arabic, Auslan, Cantonese, Mandarin, French, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Punjabi, Spanish and Vietnamese (DE: $7.6 million in 2023–24).

In partnership with DE and local Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) providers, the Brotherhood of St Laurence Family Learning Support Program continued to help families and children from vulnerable CALD backgrounds living in public housing in Melbourne, Moonee Valley, Maribyrnong and Yarra. The program supported families to participate in ECEC and transition to school through one-on-one home learning sessions and multicultural playgroups (DE: $0.4 million in 2023–24).

As part of the Place Based Partnerships to Support School Engagement and Completion Initiative, DE funded 26 government and Catholic school communities with high numbers of students from African heritage and Pasifika backgrounds. These schools worked together to design and deliver place-based approaches to increase school participation and completion rates for these communities. DE also partnered with North Melbourne Football Club and Melbourne Victory to run in-person school holiday programs for culturally diverse young people. These holiday programs focused on sport and skills development (DE: $2.8 million in 2023–24).

The Victorian Government’s 10-year Victorian African Communities Action Plan (action plan) continued to improve social and economic outcomes for Victoria’s diverse African communities (DPC: $4.4 million in 2023–24).

In 2023–24, the action plan delivered these initiatives and outcomes:

The African Music and Cultural Festival (AMCF), Australia’s largest African festival, draws over 50,000 people each year and involves 35 African Australian communities. DE partnered with AMCF
to use the festival's platforms to promote its programs to audiences that are typically difficult
to reach (DE: $25,000 in 2023–24). The festival promoted:

DE continued putting its mandatory Holocaust Education – Delivery Requirements policy into action. This work prevents and combats antisemitism and racism in Victorian schools.
Under the policy, all Victorian government secondary school students must be taught about the Holocaust as part of the level 9/10 World War II history curriculum.

DE provided teachers with resources developed in partnership with Holocaust education experts from Victorian cultural organisations and universities.
In addition, the Melbourne Holocaust Museum,
co-funded by the department and the Gandel Foundation, continued to deliver professional learning to teachers. This funding ensures that teachers have the knowledge, pedagogy and confidence to teach about the Holocaust (DE: $44,540 in 2023–24).

DE also funded the Melbourne Holocaust Museum’s new Hidden exhibition for upper primary school students (DE: $30,000 in 2023–24). As part of this program, 3,000 Victorian government students will attend the exhibition and participate in learning activities before and after their visit.

The Minister for Youth Justice aimed to address the over-representation of certain groups in youth justice. This approach drew on lived cultural and justice system experience. Groups included South Sudanese Australian, other African Australian and Pasifika Australian young people. The Minister allocated $3 million over 3 years for programs supporting multicultural young people in youth justice (DJCS: $0.173 million in 2023–24).

The Youth Justice Lived-Experience Mentoring Program includes:

These programs empower young people to build relationships and foster social inclusion. They also encourage connection to community and culture.

The Multicultural Seniors Support 2021–2025 program supported more than 990 seniors organisations. The program helped these organisations to run social and cultural activities, improve digital accessibility and literacy, and purchase essential equipment and resources. It also contributed to running and insurance costs (DPC: $2 million in 2023–24).

The Multicultural Festivals and Events Program supported 573 organisations to deliver multicultural festivals and events across the state during 2023–24 (DPC: $2.575 million).

In 2023–24, the Regional Multicultural Festivals and Events Fund supported 73 regional multicultural organisations to hold events in regional Victoria (DPC: $1.187 million in 2023–24).

The Multicultural and Community Infrastructure Fund (MCIF) supported 84 multicultural community organisations to build, upgrade and renovate their facilities (DPC: $17.6 million in 2023–24). The program recognises that multicultural communities need safe, accessible and culturally appropriate places to gather.

Millennium House in Footscray was upgraded into a Multicultural Community Hub. Funding came from the West Gate Neighbourhood Fund grants and partnerships program (DTP: $0.2 million in 2023–24). The building now provides a dedicated, multipurpose space to support multicultural groups. The space encourages meaningful conversations between different cultures and generations. This promotes social cohesion, making Millennium House an important centre for community engagement and wellbeing.

The Heide Park and Art Gallery received funding from the North East Community Funds grants and partnerships program (DTP: $0.1 million in 2023–24). The funding will help build a ceremonial gathering and learning space next to the Birrarung/Yarra River in Bulleen. This will highlight indigenous plants and land management techniques.

Victoria has a long and rich history of multiculturalism and diversity. This is part of what makes our state such a great place to live. To protect this legacy, the government is combatting racism, faith-based discrimination and hate conduct.

In 2023–24, DPC’s Multicultural Affairs portfolio worked alongside the Treaty and First Peoples portfolio to continue the development of Victoria’s first anti-racism strategy. The strategy provides a 5-year roadmap to reducing racism in all forms – interpersonal, institutional and structural. The strategy is for Victorians of all ages, abilities, genders, sexualities, faiths and cultural backgrounds.

The Victorian Government has also invested $6 million over 3 years through the Multicultural Affairs portfolio for community-driven initiatives to combat antisemitism and Islamophobia and strengthen social cohesion.

The government allocated $3 million of this funding for community-led projects to tackle Islamophobia. Project partners include the Islamic Museum of Australia, Melbourne Grand Mosque, Islamic Council of Victoria, Board of Imams Victoria and the Australian Muslim Women’s Centre for Human Rights.

Activities include:

The other $3 million funded activities to combat antisemitism. These projects are led by the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, Zionism Victoria and Melbourne Holocaust Museum.

Activities include programs to strengthen education and awareness about Jewish culture, cross-cultural and interfaith dialogue and tracking incidents of antisemitism.

In addition, the Victorian Government is administering $900,000 through the 2023–24 State Budget for the Community Security Group to investigate antisemitic incidents in the state
(DPC: $0.9 million in 2023–24).

The Victorian Government’s Jobs Victoria Mentors project has provided employment assistance and mentoring to job seekers experiencing barriers to finding work. This includes people at risk of long-term unemployment of 12 months or more. Culturally diverse Victorians were one of the largest cohorts of Jobs Victoria employment services.

Of the people Jobs Victoria Mentors helped to find
a job in 2023–24:

Jobs Victoria Mentors staff delivered employment services in the languages of the communities they serve (DJSIR: $22.68 million in 2023–24).

Case Study

The Victorian Government is building multicultural capacity within our departments and embedding human rights knowledge and practices at every level of government.

All Victorian government departments have been part of the Charter Education Program led by the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (VEOHRC). The program helps to build a culture of human rights across the Victorian public service.

The following section sets out the initiatives undertaken by individual departments.

Table 7: Composition of Victorian Government boards as at 30 June 2024¹⁴

Table 8: Appointments and reappointments to Victorian Government boards as at 30 June 2024

Table 9: Year-on-year proportion of Victorian government department board appointments or members with culturally diverse backgrounds