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Multiculturalism in practice Victoria

Gary Sheppard.

An Interview with Gary Sheppard speaking on the change of the government.

Created:

1994

Date Added:

18 July 2002

Source:

Interview for Making Multicultural Australia, 1994.

Format:

mov (Quicktime);

File size:

--

Length:

61 secs

Transcript

GARY SHEPPARD
Former Chair, Victorian Ethnic Affairs Commission

With the change of government in 1982, the new government had a philosophy that they should have a body or a group which would be directly involved with the ethnic communities. Up until that time, there had been work done within the Ethnic Affairs portfolio of the previous government, and there was an Advisory Council to the government. But the new government felt it should be much more up front about it and a fairly big report called "Access and Equity" was developed for the new Commission's philosophical start and structural start as well. But I think it did reflect the needs of the people. I mean they had a direct input. While the government, when it was elected had a policy statement - we will have a Commission, and we will do x, y and z things to help develop the needs of the non-English speaking community - the community then had an input as to how that would work. And I think because of that input, I always believed that that document was very important and that the Commission's role with the community was a very important responsibility to maintain and upkeep its promises. And they weren't easy days then, to put those requests into operation. It was a difficult job.

Interview for Making Multicultural Australia, 1994.