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
Department | 2022–23 expenditure (%) | 2023–24 expenditure (%) |
Department of Education | 8.80 | 16.2 |
Department of Energy, Environment | 8.97 | 14.9 |
Department of Families, Fairness and Housing | 10.44 | 15.2 |
Department of Government Services8 | N/A | N/A9 |
Department of Health | 11.10 | 16.6 |
Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions | 11.79 | 29.6 |
Department of Justice and Community Safety | 9.48 | 16.6 |
Department of Premier and Cabinet | 12.05 | 50.1 |
Department of Transport and Planning | 11.45 | 21.4 |
Department of Treasury and Finance | 6.34 | N/A10 |
Table 5: Total Victorian Government multicultural media campaign expenditure as a percentage of total media campaign expenditure11
Financial year | Multicultural expenditure (%) |
2023–24 | 15 |
2022–23 | 6.7 |
2021–22 | 10.4 |
2020–21 | 9.6 |
2019–20 | 7.6 |
2018–19 | 5.0 |
2017–18 | 5.2 |
2016–17 | 6.0 |
2015–16 | 5.5 |
Consumer Affairs Victoria translated their advertising campaign on rental minimum standards into 9 different languages. These included Arabic, Chinese (both traditional and simplified), Greek and Vietnamese. The campaign involved multilingual social media advertising. It also involved translating things like the Consumer Affairs Victoria website and Real Estate Institute of Victoria information sheets (DGS: $0.047 million).
Victorians affected by the October 2022 floods were provided access to financial counsellors. In 2023–24, this involved supporting 348 people. As part of the program, financial counsellors supported flood-affected Victorians to manage their debts and get their finances back under control. Counselling included information and referral to other services, negotiating with a creditor, or working out a payment plan for debts. Financial counsellors also provided support for negotiating with banks for a pause on mortgage payments and in accessing grants. Of the Victorians receiving this support, 52 identified as being from a multicultural community (DGS: $1.88 million in 2023–24).
The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action’s (DEECA) $250 Power Saving Bonus Community Outreach Program provided targeted assistance for vulnerable and hard-to-reach households. This included people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities. The Power Saving Bonus provides Victorian households with a $250 payment to ease cost of living pressures. It also encourages households to compare energy prices to save money.
In partnership with community and not-for-profit organisations, the program ensured vulnerable households knew about how to access the Power Saving Bonus. This included tailored in-person and over-the-phone support such as translation services for CALD households.
In addition, the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria provided dedicated support for CALD households. They did this through in-person support at multicultural organisation workshops and events.
The fourth round of the Power Saving Bonus, which ran from 24 March 2023 to 31 August 2023, supported more than 67,000 households to apply for the $250 payment through the outreach program.
Of the 67,000 households who received support, 9% spoke a language other than English as their primary language (DEECA: $2.7 million in 2023–24).
Case study
Victorian Fire Season Campaign – multicultural audiences
DJCS’s Victorian Fire Season Campaign is an annual awareness campaign about how to prepare for bushfires.
Research showed that multicultural Victorians have lower rates of fire awareness. To address this, the campaign developed a multiyear strategy to get the message out to multicultural communities.
For the 2023–24 campaign, the team developed custom-designed materials for different cultural communities. We used these in press, radio, social media, out-of-home and digital channels. The ‘Know your fire risk, stay safe’ campaign featured multicultural families to reflect the communities we wanted to reach. The team identified communities most at risk and developed the material for them. Languages included Arabic, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Croatian, Dari, Farsi, Karen, Korean, Khmer and Vietnamese. We distributed the material to more than 200 multicultural organisations to share with their communities. The campaign ran from October to March and accounted for 15% of the campaign’s media expenditure.
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