Estimates Vote

Department of the Premier and Cabinet, $469,788,000

Administered Items for the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, $32,176,000

Minister:

Hon. Z.L. Bettison, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Multicultural Affairs.

Departmental Advisers:

Mr W. Hunter, Chief Operating Officer, Department of the Premier and Cabinet.

Ms J. Kennedy, Director, Multicultural Affairs, Department of the Premier and Cabinet.

The CHAIR: Good morning. Welcome to today's hearing of Estimates Committee A. Just for the record, committee A is actually rating twice as well as committee B in the ratings, so this is definitely the A committee, and we need to maintain that rating difference today, please.

I respectfully acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the traditional owners of this country throughout Australia and their connection to land and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.

The estimates committees are a relatively informal procedure and, as such, there is no need to stand to ask or answer questions. I understand the minister and the lead speaker for the opposition have agreed an approximate time for questions, which is excellent.

Changes to committee membership will be notified as they occur. Members should ensure the Chair is provided with a completed request to be discharged form. If the minister undertakes to supply information at a later date, it must be submitted to the Clerk Assistant via the Answers to Questions mailbox no later than Friday 6 September 2024.

I propose to allow both the minister and the lead speaker for the opposition to make opening statements, should they wish to do so, of up to 10 minutes. There will be a flexible approach to giving the call for asking questions. A member who is not a member of the committee may ask a question at the discretion of the Chair.

All questions need to be directed to the minister, not the minister's advisers. The minister may refer questions to advisers for a response. Questions must be based on lines of expenditure in the budget papers and must be identifiable or referenced. Members unable to complete their questions during the proceedings may submit them as questions on notice for inclusion in the assembly Notice Paper.

I remind members that the rules of debate in the house apply in committee. Consistent with the rules of the house, photography by members from the chamber floor is not permitted while the committee is sitting.

Ministers and members may not table documents before the committee; however, they can give a copy to the Chair for distribution. The committee's examinations will be broadcast in the same manner as the sittings of the house, through the IPTV system within Parliament House and online via the parliament's website. As I said before, committee A is the leader here.

I now proceed to open the following line for examination: Multicultural Affairs. The minister appearing is the Minister for Multicultural Affairs. I declare the proposed payments open for examination. Minister, I call on you now to make an opening statement if you wish or go straight to introducing your advisers, then I will call on the opposition spokesperson.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Thank you very much, Chair. I do not have an opening statement, but I would like to introduce to my right Justine Kennedy, the Director, Multicultural Affairs, and to my left Wayne Hunter, the Chief Operating Officer of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet.

The CHAIR: Member for Morialta, the floor is yours.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: I will go straight to questions; thank you, minister. There are really two budget papers that will cover most of this session. At Budget Paper 4, Volume 4, page 28, the 'Explanation of significant movements' identifies $600,000 for the African community safety program. Can the minister provide some further clarification on this? It is a program to prevent youth violence within the African South Australian community. I understand that it came from a body of work undertaken by the African Communities Council, and it was then funded. Is this funding a direct allocation under the Multicultural Priorities Fund or another grant program, or was it a specific allocation of new money to the budget approved by cabinet?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: It is new money approved by cabinet as part of the budget for 2024-25. I think you were briefed quite extensively about the great work that the African Communities Council did. I have to say it is sometimes challenging for a community to accept that there are areas that need improvement, and I give great attention and recognition for the work of the leadership through Denis Yengi to say that this is something that the community needs help on; and therefore they did six months of consultation and research on that working group on youth violence and crime in the wake of the violent behaviour of a small minority of young African South Australians in early 2022.

The report was established in June 2022 with support from the Department of the Premier and Cabinet and also the Department of Human Services. There was quite a dedicated working group with that who had focus groups, surveys and small-group interviews, and they did a lot of community interviews, including with elders, religious leaders, young people, families and women. State government representatives and non-government services were also consulted as well. Can I just recognise the work of Correctional Services within this? They freed up one of their key workers to be part of that review.

Since that time they have produced the report. It had 39 recommendations. Post that report being presented to government we continue to host some roundtable meetings with the African Communities Council of South Australia, with members of the Africans Women's Federation and representatives of the Department of Human Services, the Department for Education, SAPOL and the Department for Correctional Services.

What we wanted to do was have a shared understanding of the challenges that needed to be addressed and that were highlighted in the report. A key outcome of one of the major round tables was to connect the African Communities Council with the Legal Services Commission, particularly to consider opportunities for legal education and delivery of community information sessions.

This year we have continued to meet regularly with the African Communities Council, state government departments and other services providers to show our commitment. As you mentioned, the state government as part of the budget has now made the decision of $2.5 million over four years to support the community in many ways in terms of how we can increase that support to young African South Australians to counter African youth violence.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Thank you for that. As the minister said, the opposition was briefed, and I thank Denis Yengi as well along with Dr Yilma Woldgabreal and Billy Siegfried Mends, who were the ones who came and provided that briefing, and the parliament record will record the attention that we drew to it.

So we are pleased that the government has paid attention to the report. I think the minister in her response identified it as $2.5 million over four years. Can I clarify in relation to that funding: it is $600,000 this year; is the minister able to identify how that $600,000 this year is being spent, and is it comprising grants to community groups? If so, which ones and for what purpose?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: The package will include measures aimed at strengthening connections between young African South Australians and their education through improved cultural education support and a community support program. There will also be additional funding available to help community organisations better support young people and their families.

We are also going to be expanding the education and support for those at risk of entering the youth justice system to reduce the chances of reoffending. There will also be additional operational support to the African Communities Council of South Australia. We will announce more of the interventions and investments in the near future.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Can I just clarify—my hearing is not so great at the moment and I do not have my aid—you said there will be further announcements to come about that?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Yes.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Nevertheless, seeing as the money is in the budget paper, I might seek to tease out any of it and if you are able to provide some answers that may be helpful. I got the purposes of funding include education, helping young people engage with their education, there will be funding for some committee groups, education for groups at risk, and some support for the African Communities Council. Are you able to put a dollar figure on the support for the African Communities Council or the funding available for community groups?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: There is some specific funding, which is similar to the funding that has been continuing for previous years, for the African Communities Council. We are in final negotiations on that, at a similar level to what was beforehand. I think there is some interest in this. Obviously, we will be working with the Department of Human Services, looking at some of the work that is already provided and the opportunity to expand that work.

I have a particular interest, and as is identified in the report, for people before they enter the justice system who perhaps are showing us that they are getting themselves into challenging situations. I also think the work of the education department is quite strong in their cultural liaison officers. These are things to be worked out. Because this is a four-year program, I also want to acknowledge the work, particularly in the northern region, of many of our African associations that particularly are supporting parents who find there are challenges with intergenerational parenting, and how to support them as well. So it will be quite a comprehensive package, the details of which are still to be negotiated.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Do I take from that, then, that some of the funding is likely to work through supporting the Department of Human Services in delivering new programs, and maybe even the Department for Education as well?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Yes. What we want to do is recognise the work that is already occurring and look at whether it can be expanded and in greater depth. It is not really to completely reinvent the wheel all over the place but to look at areas where government is already connected to African South Australians, doing good work, but there could be more emphasis, particularly in prevention—for the children and young people who have some identified challenging behaviours, how we can get in there and support them.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Do you have an idea at this stage of whether there is likely to be funding for any NGOs other than those African community organisations and the African Communities Council that you have described?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Obviously, they were a key part of the report process. Multicultural Youth South Australia (MYSA) do some prevention programs already funded, mostly by the commonwealth. We are having conversations with all of those, I guess, non-government organisations that provide those services, but that has not been determined at this point.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Has the funding included some provision of budget for there to be analysis or review of the effectiveness of the program at some stage over the four years?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: That is something that takes place with all these types of additional funding that come through. We know that this has been recognised as an area of need in South Australia. Once again, I commend the community for putting their hand up, doing the work to say, 'We want to make sure that where we see increasing numbers of incarceration we want to turn that around.' We have done the work to show where those recommendations are and we have now taken a whole-of-government approach to see what we can do to assist.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: If we go to page 27, the third dot point under targets talks about the Ambassador Program. Last year, you will recall, under highlights there was a highlight of introducing the Ambassador Program to activate the Multicultural Charter and embed its principles within organisations and now we have a target to scale up that charter with the same sort of purpose. I understand that the initial one was a six-month pilot. It began in August 2023. Can the minister outline the outcomes of that pilot?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: We have not actually finished the pilot at this point. We are near the end of it. I have to say that it is probably one of the programs that we started with the intention to see if we can have individual companies reflect on the diversity in their workplace. I have been incredibly surprised at the passion and the interest of those involved in the pilot program to support it. We are in the final stages of that pilot. We will obviously take that time to reflect on where we go.

The Ambassador Program was launched on 23 November 2023. What it is is an election commitment aimed at enacting the South Australian Multicultural Charter, which was tabled in parliament on 9 March 2023. We want to embed the charter and its principles within the workforce, business practices and service delivery of South Australian organisations. As you said, it was a six-month pilot involving five organisations from the private, not-for-profit and local government sector. The Cancer Council of South Australia, the City of West Torrens, Mitsubishi Motors Australia Limited, PKF Adelaide and the RAA group all participated in the pilot program.

What we wanted to demonstrate is how the charter can be adopted in different types of workplaces and support South Australian organisations to prioritise their cultural diversity. What those participating organisations do is have a self-assessment that they complete themselves, which is designed to identify the baseline of cultural diversity and awareness within their workplace. Each participating organisation is also hosting an activation session to support learning and share insights into that.

We have had several of those activation sessions. Of course, we have taken some feedback from that as well. The City of West Torrens were the first off the mark. They had a presentation from the Multicultural Communities Council about their cultural IQ training. In March, the Cancer Council South Australia had a presentation from Carmen Garcia from Community Corporate. In April of this year, PKF had a presentation from Jane Johnston from StudyAdelaide.

When I say 'they had a presentation', they hosted the event and all the participants came along to those events. In May of this year, the RAA had a panel session involving employers themselves and PKF Adelaide, sharing their lived experience as employers from migrant backgrounds and the opportunities it unlocked for their organisation. I think at the end of this month, Mitsubishi Motors will be holding a round table and then, just after that, the pilot concludes.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Has the minister had an indication from those five organisations whether they will continue with the program to be multicultural ambassadors moving forward once the pilot stage is concluded?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: That is the intention we have. Our intention is to call them 'foundation members'. When we do the next round of organisations, they will make sure they come and share their experiences as they continue to implement.

For example, Mitsubishi Motors has conducted a review of their policies through a culturally and linguistically diverse lens. They are now going to offer cultural competence training as part of their leadership training. That will be something that they continue to do ongoing. The RAA are looking to expand their graduate program to international students. They have conducted some internal reviews and consultations, looking at their policies. I am really pleased that they have all offered to continue to be foundation members, to encourage other organisations to participate and to talk about the learnings that they have had.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Given that it is a pilot program, and given what the minister said before about the African community violence program, the expectation being in that program that there would be a review of some sort, is this pilot being reviewed? Is there likely to be a report that is made public at some stage?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: An internal review will take place. Obviously after a pilot program we want to make sure that what we are offering is working. There are some tweaks that we will make for the next program about the time that we are asking organisations to be involved and the attendances at those five events that we have had. We want it to be something that people embrace: they ask questions, they reflect on their own internal processes, but we do not want it to be onerous either.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Can the minister advise on the timing; whether there is a date that she expects the pilot to have concluded by and whether there is a date that she expects the full program to be launched by?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I am hosting a reception in August that will launch the next round of the program and then it will start and end the pilot and then it will start again in September.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Do we have a sense of businesses that are approaching the department already seeking to be part of that program? How many businesses or organisations do we expect will be participating in the next expansion of the program?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: So our expectation is the next round, or the first round—that is not the pilot—10 organisations will participate in that. We are looking for a diversity of organisations in the private sector and the not-for-profit-sector and a few local councils as well. We have looked at having a spread within each of the rounds, because people learn from each other.

While I have some names, I am not able to share them with the house because they have not formally agreed. We approach them or they approach us, which we have already had, and that new program will start in September.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Is that 10 inclusive of the five foundation members, or 10 additional?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Ten additional.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Do we have a budget specifically for this program on the establishment costs and then the annual business as usual costs going forward?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: We did have $30,000 per annum attached to this because resourcing is done internally.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: I might just ask a couple more questions on the same target. Obviously the Multicultural Charter was supported with bipartisan support, coming, as it did, from the new Multicultural Act, which was from the previous Liberal government, so you have our bipartisan support in that charter.

Obviously there is a newly constructed Multicultural Commission which replaced the old SAMEAC. I think the current board members' terms expire within days. Can the minister advise about the selection process for the new board members?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: The selection process was the same as under the previous government. Obviously these current commission members were appointed for three years from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2024. We did have some resignations during this time, but I want to thank the current existing membership of the commission. I was able to host them recently here in Parliament House to thank them for the work that they do, and of course now they are waiting to see.

We had expressions of interest open on 16 February 2024 and close on 4 March; 132 submissions were received for positions on the commission for 2024-27 and I will announce that publicly on 1 July.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: You would not like to give us an early sense of whether people are being re-appointed?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: No.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: The minister declines to provide advice to the committee, sir.

The CHAIR: I am not going to want to be—

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I think the process that was brought to our position post the new legislation was continued and we proceeded that way. Hender Consulting was involved, as they were I think last time as well. I have to say I was absolutely delighted to see that 132 people expressed their interest in being part of the commission. It is actually quite a bit of work to be part of the commission, whether you are on the panels, whether you are attending events and, of course, I have actually asked the commission to be far more engaged with our diverse community through community consultations. This is something we have started up in the last few months, to actually go out there and hold these consultations. The first was with the Hindu community, and the second with the Afghan community. It is to invite people to talk about some of the challenges they have in their community, and what is working well.

I have high expectations of the work of the commission members, and I want to thank the current commission members. They came in at a time when COVID was still very impactful for the community. What was very challenging at that time was that quite a few social events could not take place because of the restrictions, and some community groups have found it hard to continue. Others have completely flourished since that time. I once again thank them for the work that they have done, and I look forward to announcing the new commission in the near future.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: I thank the minister for that, and I, too, hope that many of those people have wonderful times on the commission. Hopefully, some of the ones who have served us so well are able to continue doing so.

We will go to a different dot point. The first target goes to the work of community language schools. Last year the minister outlined that funding for multicultural affairs was allocated to increase staffing at Community Language Schools SA to provide intensive case management and curriculum development services for new and existing language schools for an initial 12 months. Will funding for this increased staffing continue or are these additional positions coming to an end?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Every year we sit down with community language schools and talk about the next agreement, looking at what has come to fruition and what we need to do going forward. It was a substantial investment of $4 million over four years that we had as an election commitment to those community language schools and, of course, we work quite closely with the Department for Education and Community Language Schools SA to deliver on this election commitment.

There are currently 88 active and fully accredited community language schools, teaching 46 community languages, and at semester 1, 2024, there were 7,862 enrolments in the program. We executed our funding agreement on 12 July 2023 for this current financial year, and the focus has been around premises, personnel and pathways this year.

The premises continue to top up the funding for government and non-government schools that host our community language schools. Personnel continues supporting additional staffing for Community Language Schools SA and professional development training for community language school leaders. Pathways, which is a new priority added in this past year, is to support Community Language Schools SA to offer vocational and SACE pathways for secondary students who study a language at our community language schools.

Something that I am particularly pleased about is the establishment of community language learning hubs at Regency Park TAFE, Salisbury TAFE, and at Torrens University. The aim is to cluster several of these community language schools together to share learning spaces, materials and equipment. At the moment we have a total of 10 schools offering nine languages to 368 students. As we develop these hubs further, what they will actually be is incubators, so particularly for newer schools that are just starting or very small schools, by hubbing them together with others they have that shared experience about learning and about some of the ways that you support volunteers, and we have had a great response to that.

I am also pleased to say that we have developed through Community Language Schools SA their digital language learning hub to share teaching and learning e-resources in Arabic, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Greek and Farsi. In this past financial year, they have also delivered the infrastructure grants programs, and eight organisations were awarded up to $100,000 to develop or upgrade their community-owned facilities.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Premises, personnel and pathways was what I took from that. Can the minister advise if any of the additional funding for community language schools is being provided in the per annum grants per student to schools? So I got that premises are supporting where there is a top-up required for the place where the schools are taking place; personnel, which was supporting the central organisation; and the pathways program, so that those three funding streams—or maybe I could reframe the question. Are we able to identify how much is going into each of those three programs: how much for premises, how much for personnel and how much for pathways?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I will break that down for you. It was a total of $481,270, and increased funding to Catholic and Independent host schools of $105,270. That was obviously a considerable change that started last year. We are quite agnostic about where these community language schools are held; I think it is something you and I have spoken about before.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Yes, that was a good decision.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: So we have just had a question about how many schools, and more than a dozen are participating. Of course, some schools have multiple campuses as well. The reflection on that is that that has gone very well.

The community language learning hubs, as I talked about, was $71,000; staffing, $100,000; governance and continuous improvement training of $400,000; school personnel training, $20,000; the digital learning hub, $75,000; culturally diverse vocational pathways for SACE and non-SACE students, $70,000; and $113,730 has been allocated to the Department for Education to administer the increased funding to government host schools. Of course, in 2023-24 there was funding for those infrastructure grants. I missed governance and continuous improvement training of $40,000—so the total expenditure for year 2 of this election commitment was $1.095 million.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Are those figures which the minister just went through going to be replicated in year 3 and year 4 of the program as well?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: In general, we have a continuous funding that goes over the four years. There are two years that are slightly different. We run the infrastructure program every two years.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: That infrastructure grants program will not be taking place this year, but is to take place next year?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: In 2025-26, yes.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: In terms of the per student funding that goes to the community language schools, that will continue through education, as it was previously, and is not relevant to this?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: This just adds a multicultural lens to the support. It is something that I think and the government thinks is incredibly important to support these community language schools.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: I may have missed it, but was there a reference in one of those funding streams to needs-based funding for community language schools or was that particularly in relation to—when we talk about needs-based funding in this sense—the schools that need extra support for their physical location?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Needs-based funding is part of that larger figure that I mentioned, I just did not break it down in the figures that I gave you.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: In the—

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: The figures that I gave you were the new areas that had come into fruition this year.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Is the minister able to identify which schools received additional funding identified as being needs-based?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: We will have to take that on notice. Obviously, the community languages of South Australia will have that detail.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: In terms of the decisions about which schools receive how much money, or how much support, is that also coordinated through Community Language Schools SA or is there another process?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Yes, it is a per student amount. It is not that one school gets it and one school does not—every school receives that needs-based funding.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Is all of this funding covered by that grants and subsidies line on page 28 or is there a different break-up?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: It is all covered under 'Grants and subsidies' on page 28.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: On page 28 again, the $1 million funding agreement that was announced earlier this month with the University of South Australia and Flinders University for the maintenance and support for Italian language teaching, does that also come from the Multicultural Affairs budget, or does that come from somebody else's budget?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Minister Close is responsible for that funding.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Can I take one step back to the previous discussion we were having about the ambassador program and the Multicultural Commission? What was the involvement of the Multicultural Commission and its members with that ambassador program? I know that the minister referred to Carmen Garcia as being engaged with one of those, but was there any other engagement with the Multicultural Commission or its members?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Yes. Obviously, they were very involved in the formation of the charter, and at the beginning of the discussion around the ambassador program they were fully briefed about that and, in fact, have been promoting the ambassador program.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Were there any members other than Carmen Garcia who were directly involved in the program?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Carmen was not involved per se because of her work as a commission member. We recognised the work in her Community Corporate, particularly dealing with the recruitment of people from diverse backgrounds.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: So she was involved in a professional sense rather that than a commission sense. Were any members of the commission involved in the ambassador program in a direct sense, and have they provided feedback or review accordingly?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Obviously, they are involved in the promotion of the ambassador program. The Chair of the Multicultural Commission, who also works for the City of West Torrens, volunteered for them to be a key part of the pilot program, and I thank her for providing them as an opportunity to be part of the pilot.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Can I go to dot point 5 under highlights, the Multicultural Women's Micro Business Fund, which we have heard the minister speak about on occasion? How much funding has been allocated to the Multicultural Women's Micro Business Fund?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: There was $100,000 in the initial year, and it was part of an election commitment to bring back the LaunchMe for multicultural women, and $108,000, as I am advised, in the second year. This was a program that we engaged with Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand to deliver this Multicultural Women's Micro Business Fund program. We know that when people are starting a business from scratch it is both challenging and exciting. This is an opportunity in a focus around making South Australia a more inclusive, culturally aware place to live, to study, work and thrive.

The program was a pilot from July to December 2023, and 10 culturally and linguistically diverse women in the northern Adelaide region, who had a viable business idea or who had recently established a micro-enterprise, were supported to develop their skills and confidence to start, manage and grow their business. It includes personal business coaching sessions, financial assistance, networking opportunities and access to Good Shepherd wraparound services.

I was really pleased to see the diversity of women who attended. Their diverse cultural backgrounds are from Chile, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Peru, Iraq and Ghana. They have been empowered to establish their businesses here.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: How were those women identified? Were they selected by Good Shepherd, or was there a competitive application process?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: They were approached by Good Shepherd, who have run this program previously for several years—not always with a multicultural lens, but previously they have gone out. Can I just say the current program participants are from Lebanon, Samoa, Venezuela, Burundi, El Salvador, India, the Philippines and Algeria.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Again, in terms of wrapping up the funding side of this one, is this also from this 'Grants and subsidies' budget line on page 28?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Yes, it is.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Is the expectation that Good Shepherd will be maintained for a period of time to come to keep running these programs over the coming years?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: We are in negotiations about that right now.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: But there is a budget allocation going forward for it?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Yes.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: For the full four years?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Yes. The budget allocation for this year is $108,000 for 2024-25.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: So, if Good Shepherd has approached the 10 women in the original version of the program, is it anticipated that that will be the model that Good Shepherd, through their community engagement, will be aware of opportunities and will approach people directly, or is there an opportunity for women to apply directly for the program in a more transparent way?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Yes, so the pilot was run initially at the beginning of 2023-24, the second cohort was in the next six months, and then this year it will be spread across the whole of South Australia, not just the northern area. So there is the Facebook page, and of course those participants themselves have been going out and promoting it as well.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Presumably, if it is promoted broadly and people make an application, the selection process is done by—is there an independent assessment panel or is it Good Shepherd or the department?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Yes, Good Shepherd handles all of that. They go through the process. Obviously, people—even if they have a great idea or they have just started their micro-enterprise—have to be ready to participate in the program. Obviously, one of the key parts about it is that financial assistance and those networking opportunities and the business coach. Even if people are keen to participate, timing of events comes into it, so Good Shepherd talks to them about their ability to participate at that time.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: I understand on the Good Shepherd website there is an advertisement for LaunchMe for multicultural women in northern Adelaide. Is that the same program that we are talking about?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Yes, I understand it is.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Can the minister clarify, she talked about the pilot group and then there is another group that has been going through. There were 10 women in the pilot group. How many women in the second group?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Up to 10 as well.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: In coming rounds, is it expected to be the same?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Say about 10 people.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Per year?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I think there will be two rounds per year, obviously to keep that intensity of the ability to support the development of that business.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: This program, as the others, will have a review—internal or external? Will it be publicly reported?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Always.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Hang on—internal or external? Publicly reported?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I have to say Good Shepherd are very clear. I think there is a publicly available document looking at LaunchMe because they have used this in other areas. It has been mainstream, the LaunchMe program, and of course it is multicultural and they advertise that and we support that.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: I will go to the second dot point under targets, regarding working with government agencies and key stakeholders to promote findings of the skills, qualifications and professional experience review, and investigate opportunities to enact the recommendations. Can the minister outline the results of the review of migrant communities' skills, qualifications and professional experiences—undertaken, I understand, by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu in 2023?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Deloitte provided me with the final report in May 2024. It shows the evidence of the current trends of underutilisation of onshore migrants across Australia. Of course, we have just had some recent portfolio changes and the Hon. Susan Close is now the Minister for Workforce and Population Strategy, so we look forward to working with her and across government agencies to address these opportunities that were raised in the report.

I was really pleased with the consultation phase that was done by Deloitte. They met with migrant communities and multicultural community organisations, and diverse public and private sector stakeholders. They received more than 400 responses to their survey to build an evidence base and support the policy development to look at that. The review was informed by the latest quantitative and qualitative data on skilled migration and applies economic modelling using Deloitte's Regional General Equilibrium Model.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Is that report going to be made public?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: It will in the future.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Do you have an estimated time frame on that?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: In good time.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: This year?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I think what is most important about this is this was an election commitment. We went to the election with a full and concise policy document. One of the challenges that has been raised with me, particularly by skilled migrants and international students, was some of the barriers they found to participating fully in the South Australian economy. That is why we did this work. It was also based around some of the work done in Queensland in 2018.

Obviously, you have seen our state prosperity plan, but we also have quite a few major infrastructure projects coming up, such as the Torrens to Darlington and, of course, the Women's and Children's Hospital. We are in a time of growth, and we need skills on board. A key focus around this is: given what we want to achieve and particularly with AUKUS coming, how do we maximise the skills of migrants who are already here in South Australia? That was what the work was focused around.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Did this report, which will hopefully be made public this year, include any recommendations?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: The recommendations look at skills recognition, which is something we have looked at before. They were also about networking opportunities here and a few of the other areas as well. To some extent, these are not new things that have been brought up, but what we really want to do is look at a consolidated set of where that opportunity lies, so we will be responding to that in good time.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Given that the report has not yet been made public but the minister has said the government will be responding to those recommendations, is the government in a position to identify when the government will respond to those recommendations?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: In the near future.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: How much did the review cost?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: The total, allocated over two financial years, was $95,875 in 2022-23 and $79,829 in 2023-24.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: From the basis of the minister's answer before describing the recommendations, are the Department for Education and the Department for Industry, Innovation and Science, the Deputy Premier's department, both involved in framing the government's response, or is this being led by Multicultural SA?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I think that we have seen more focus on this than ever before. Across the board, the whole of government will reflect on the report and the opportunity that is before us.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Is there any budget that is provided towards implementation of the recommendations of this report?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: There is not a specific budget with this. Obviously, with those portfolio changes, we have made it very clear that workforce is a key challenge for our future ambitions. There is no doubt at all that, whether it be through skills or upskilling or talking about maximising the use of all employees, this is a view for the whole of government.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Still on the general expenses line, how much money was spent on hosting the South Australian Multicultural Festival in 2023, and what is the budget for 2024?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: As you may recall, we made the decision through our election commitment to bring on the Multicultural Festival on an annual basis. The aim of it is to strengthen cultural understanding, encourage all South Australians to recognise cultural diversity as a positive influence in the community and provide a forum to celebrate new, emerging and established cultures. It is also to promote multiculturalism and community harmony.

The first annual festival was held in Victoria Square on Sunday 12 November. We held it from 11am to 5pm. Seventy-four multicultural community groups received grants through the festival grants program to participate in the event, and 55 cultures were represented across 29 performances, 13 activities and 35 stalls. Over 10,200 people attended the festival, and the budget line for that was $444,000. That includes staff resources, event logistics and operations, and grants to support the communities to participate.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: The minister identified some grants—

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: I just need to correct, sorry: that was the budget, and the total cost was $483,500.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Thank you for that. I think the minister identified there were some grants to community groups in amongst that. Was there also, given the involvement of the multicultural affairs program, some of that funding allocated from the employee expenses line and the supplies and services line, or would it all be counted under that grants and subsidies line?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Yes, it was accounted within salaries and within grants.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: So a bit of both. Are you able to identify how much under each?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: We might need to take that on notice.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Thank you. In relation to the objective talking about promoting community capacity and harmony and grants to community organisations, as I understand it there are core funding allocations to groups like the Australian Migrant Resource Centre and the Multicultural Communities Council of SA; is the minister able to identify if any of those organisations have received an increase in their core funding allocation in the last two years, or has their funding remained static, or has it declined?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: All core funding receives indexation in multicultural affairs.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: I am sure that we will have an omnibus question that will give the opportunity to provide the detail of that later. I am mindful of the time. Again we are on page 28, program expenses. I am happy for the minister to take this on notice if she would like; it is up to her, I guess: I am interested in a full reconciliation report of everything under the budget line of grants and subsidies.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: What do you mean by 'reconciliation report'?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Who has got what?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: As you know, all grants are available: all grant recipients are on the website. I am more than happy to read out those who have been successful.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: I am less interested in their names unless there is also the allocated figure of how much they have all got.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: In general we do not break down for each of the different grant lines, but what we do talk about is how much we have in the budget line. The 2023-24 Multicultural Grants Program was $6.661 million, and that included all the different types—Celebrate Together Grants, Expand Together Grants, Stronger Together Grants, and the Multicultural Festival was part of that as well.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Thank you. I am just going to go to a different line. Under targets, one of the targets is providing leadership and advice on development, monitoring and reporting of initiatives to enhance culturally and linguistically diverse employment in the public sector. Has the Office of the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment undertaken staff surveys to monitor and report on the diversity of people who work for state government, and has Multicultural Affairs been involved in the development of such a project?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Yes. That survey did take place, and I thank the Office of the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment for the ability for us to monitor and report on diversity in the Public Service. This is something that I have been pursuing for quite some time. In fact, in debate on the new South Australian Multicultural Commission legislation I asked for it to be included in that, which was not supported by the government of the day. Nevertheless, we continue to go ahead.

Being the state's largest employer, the South Australian Public Service needs to represent and reflect the diverse and vibrant community it serves. Through part of the existing workforce information reporting and People Matter, the across-government engagement service, we asked questions for the very first time about cultural and linguistic diversity within the public sector.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Will this report be made publicly available? Is there some level of further interface?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Yes; I am advised this is a report that is made public. I think they are finalising the outcomes of that report at the moment.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: And this will be something that will be regularly done going forward?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Yes, I intend to encourage and support that. It is published annually, that report, and my intention is that will be part of it. But of course, this is done in conjunction with the commissioner.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Has any funding or other financial support been required by the Commissioner for Multicultural Affairs to support this inclusion?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: The commissioner has done this work within existing resources, but perhaps I might touch on the Ambassador Program. As I said earlier, this is currently being run out of—or the pilot was with—the private sector and the not-for-profit sector. In 2025 it is my intention to start that work within government as well, with government departments. It might be a slightly different format, and we are still going through that process, but it is very much my belief that in order to write the best policy for South Australia the Public Service must reflect the South Australian population. That is why we are taking that survey data and then looking at potential areas.

When we did this through a gender lens, we saw that women were in many different levels within the Public Service but often were not paid the same amount as men. What we will be looking for are things like unconscious bias in recruitment and barriers to entry into the Public Service. We achieved a significant amount of change when we had a gender lens; my intention is to have a multicultural lens on the Public Service.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: There is a dot point under highlights on page 27 about the Multicultural Services Directory. Can the minister outline the resources and funding allocated for the development and ongoing maintenance of the Multicultural Resources Directory? I am imagining there was an establishment cost and then an ongoing cost.

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: Yes. The multicultural directory, once again, was another election commitment in the comprehensive policy document that we took to the election for multicultural affairs. The Australian Refugee Association (ARA) was engaged to develop this directory. It is a free, user-friendly web app that was launched on 3 April 2024. It was developed in consultation with a range of stakeholders, and I want to thank the bicultural staff at ARA, Community Language Schools SA, AMES Australia, MCCSA, the African Women's Federation, and the Muslim Australian Connections of South Australia.

We have 150 organisations across more than 20 service categories that are identified, including health and wellbeing, women's services, employment, education, training and youth. I saw somewhere recently that more than 5,000 people have accessed this application. The expenditure for the directory in 2022-23 was $78,000 and in 2023-24 was $20,000. We will continue to work with ARA on how that might continue to develop.

I have to say I am very pleased with the levels of access. I particularly think in regard to health, accessing information in language—a pharmacist who speaks different languages and knowing where that person might be, whether someone is a new migrant here or has been here for some time, having that access to a one-stop shop for those services—is something people have been asking for for some time. We will continue to monitor that.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Is there a budget for multicultural communities to be informed about the directory? What sort of promotion are we anticipating?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: It has been part of what ARA was committed to doing with the establishment of the directory; that is why we have had more than 5,000 people go to the site already.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Is the government promoting it any further or just allowing ARA to undertake whatever they are doing?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: On a frequent basis we have an e-blast that is sent out from the department with messages from myself about upcoming grant rounds, for example. When the multicultural directory was launched, it was obviously put out on an e-blast and talked about in that.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: What criteria are being used to determine who is listed and who is not? Who is the decision-maker there?

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON: ARA curates it, but it is actually really open for anyone who would like to register their service on the multicultural services app. They moderate it or curate it, obviously, to make sure that it is appropriate for the time, but it is open for people to put on their services.

The CHAIR: The allotted time having expired, I declare the examination of Multicultural Affairs complete and refer the further examination of the proposed payments to Estimates Committee B. I thank the minister and her advisers and members of the opposition.

Sitting suspended from 10:01 to 10:15.