Ministerial Forum on Multicultural Affairs – Communique

​The Assistant Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, the Hon Julian Hill MP chaired the bi-annual Ministerial Forum on Multicultural Affairs on Friday, 6 December 2024. Multicultural Affairs Ministers from around Australia met at Parliament House in Canberra to strengthen ties through a collaborative and priority agenda.

Assistant Minister Hill emphasised the Australian Government’s commitment to long term and strategic investment in multicultural communities, including careful consideration of the Multicultural Framework Review Panel’s recommendations. The Government has committed more than $100 million to complement the release of the Review and the Government Response to address key priorities including dedicating $9.77 million to support multicultural community-led organisations through the Multicultural Grassroots Initiative. In direct response to the Review recommendation to strengthen ties between the Council and all jurisdictions, Minister Hill led discussion on the immediate opportunity to work in partnership to establish the new Australian Multicultural Council for 2025 – 2028.

Ministers unequivocally and strongly condemned the arson attack on Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne overnight expressing that antisemitism is not tolerated in Australia. Violence is never justified and Ministers stand in solidarity with the Jewish community.

Ministers discussed the significant impact the conflict in the Middle East continues to have on Australian communities and on social cohesion in Australia. The Forum received expert briefings from the Prime Minister’s recently appointed Special Envoy to combat Antisemitism, Ms Jillian Segal AO, the Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia, Mr Aftab Malik, and the Special Envoy for Social Cohesion, Mr Peter Khalil MP. Furthering discussion, the Race Discrimination Commissioner, Giridharan Sivaraman talked to the recently released National Anti-Racism Framework: A roadmap to eliminating racism in Australia. The Framework acts as a roadmap for government, non-government organisations, businesses and civil society organisations to bring about a whole of society approach to eliminating racism.

The sustainability of the language services sector remained a collective focus, informed by an update from the Department of Home Affairs on opportunities for inter-governmental collaboration. Ministers noted a Statement of Intent for National Language Services Data Collection Standards, to inform policy, program and service delivery improvements. Ministers also agreed for the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters to develop an endorsement model for language service providers, to improve the quality and consistency of language services delivery. Ministers noted that development of the endorsement model should consider the needs of smaller jurisdictions and that the model should be brought to a future Ministerial Forum for final agreement. Ministers also received a briefing from the Department on Australia’s refugee, humanitarian and settlement services, including enhancing collaboration between the Commonweal​th and state and territory jurisdictions to better support those arriving from crises, including the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

MINISTERIAL ATTENDEES