Bills

South Australian Multicultural Bill

Second Reading

Debate resumed.

The Hon. G.G. BROCK (Frome) (16:49): It is with great pride—and I mean great pride—that I am able to talk today on the South Australian Multicultural Bill. It is a great privilege to be able to do something on behalf of not only my community but also regional South Australia and Australia in particular. I will start off by thanking the SAMEAC board and Norman and also its members for their great assistance to me in the last couple of weeks in giving me guidance through the bill and some suggestions, and also to assistant minister Jing Lee in the other house for her briefings to both me and the crossbench.

The start of multiculturism in Australia began when explorers came to Australia. That was the very start of this nation becoming multicultural because different nationalities were coming in at that particular point. I want to talk about my community of Port Pirie and the surrounding areas. It is a very multicultural society with many different cultures living in all the communities surrounding Port Pirie and the region.

I have and always will state that Port Pirie is the multicultural capital of South Australia and, in some cases, the multicultural capital of Australia. It could be a great example to the rest of the world to learn how various different cultures can live, work and learn from each other's various cultures—and I mean that quite sincerely—in their behaviour, their attitude, their dedication and also very much the food.

There has been great diversity across my whole life in the last 50 years. When I was attending school, particularly primary school, there was a great division between the Australian-born kids and the Italian and Greek children. I will not say what we were calling each other, but it was not really good, looking back. When I look back to those days, I can see how great has been the progress our community has made in the years following.

When I was courting my late wife, Arlene, we learnt that there was going to be a pizza place established in Port Pirie. We thought, 'What a stupid idea,' because at that stage pizzas were not even on the agenda for our food or our normal diet. How wrong was I? Careful!

Mr Pederick: Ham and pineapple?

The Hon. G.G. BROCK: Ham and pineapple. How wrong was I? The new owners of the pizza place were named Donny and Rocky, and the business—

Mr Pederick: I would have bought you a supreme.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Continue, member for Frome.

The Hon. G.G. BROCK: Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for your protection. How wrong was I? The new owners of the pizza place were Donny and Rocky, and the business was so popular that you virtually could not get in there at any time at all. Donny would do it the old way: get the pastry, throw it up into the air, the real Italian way of making a pizza. Today, it is entirely different; everything is pre-made and so on. Donny himself returned to Italy many years ago, but Rocky is still in Port Pirie. To this very day, I have not seen anyone make a pizza like they did in those days.

Also at this time, the Greek community was quite large. The Greek community was one of the largest in South Australia if not Australia. The Greek people there had numerous market gardens on the outskirts of Port Pirie, at Nelshaby, where they grew every type of vegetable. They were supplying the markets in Adelaide with most of their produce. The east market was one of them, and I can remember very vividly working there as a child to get pocket money. In my situation, that was the only ability I had to get any spending money. My parents were very great parents but with six other siblings there was not much spare money to give us children as pocket money.

We used to go out and pick the peas, the zucchinis, the watermelons, the rockmelons—everything out there. It was absolutely fantastic. I must admit that the amount of money you got in those days per hour was definitely something that should have been looked at, at that stage.

In 1924, the Greek Church of St George in Port Pirie was established. It is the oldest Greek Orthodox Church in South Australia and one of the oldest in Australia. The Greek Orthodox community in Port Pirie has a long and proud history of glorifying God in orthodox worship and of serving their community. Greek Orthodox communities developed in Brisbane, Perth, Port Pirie and Darwin. Beyond any doubt, in all these communities the church was the centre of stability and unity for the new life of migrants in Australia.

In late 2019, the federal government offered some funding to extend its entry-level Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP) for the elderly to targeted areas. One such area was Port Pirie and the Mid North. With the blessing of Bishop Silouan of Sinope, the Greek Welfare Centre was successful in securing funding. After delays in receiving the funding, followed by further COVID-19 induced delays, this organisation is finally in a position to start rolling out their services. These services include not only food but also assistance in homes for those who require it.

Our Italian community is the largest multicultural community in Port Pirie. They emigrated from Molfetta in Italy to endeavour to look for a better life for their families. Port Pirie was a very large part of that immigration and those fishermen came to Port Pirie and went fishing in very, very small wooden boats, sometimes for days, to gather fish for their families who may have been in Port Pirie, as well as to send money back to their families.

I must admit, I have seen some of those boats and they were very, very small and made of wood. They would have on board a portable stove and water, and they would go out for days and cook the fish on the boats. I do not know how they did not actually burn the boat and sink the whole lot. In hindsight, those people would have been pioneers. When we go fishing today, we go out in a power boat; in those days, it was all sails or rowing.

When I look at the museum display in Port Pirie about the Molfetta fishermen—and I encourage anybody who goes there to have a look at it—it is a real eye-opener to understand the struggles that they would have gone through. To remember these brave fishermen, our community celebrates with the annual blessing of the fleet, celebrating Our Lady of Martyrs dedication and also a deb ball for the younger children.

Pre COVID-19, these occasions would attract nearly 500 people to the ball, and the annual procession the next day would be attended by 3,000 to 4,000 people, with the statue of Our Lady being taken out into the waters for the blessing. I must admit that one of the first things I did when I got together with my partner, Lyn, was that we went out on the boat. She was very scared because it was very choppy and the boat itself was not very big. They loaded the statue onto it.

Lyn was a little bit apprehensive getting on the vessel, but the bishop was there. I said to Lyn, 'Nothing will happen to us on this vessel; we have the bishop and we have four fathers.' As it turned out, we were okay going out there, but the boat kept going around and around in circles because the steering collapsed. We were in the middle of the Port Pirie River trying to get back. We had to get towed back and it was not a good look for the bishop coming back in. We have a new bishop now. We got rid of that one.

Another growing population in our community is the Filipino community. The number of Filipino people living in Port Pirie or making Port Pirie their home is growing dramatically every day. I went across to the Philippines as president of the Rotary Club of Port Pirie, because we have a sister relationship with Dau over there. Their hospitality and their dedication to their beliefs I could not fault. They were absolutely fantastic.

On one occasion we had to climb to the top of a mountain, and it was a big mountain. It was very humid and we struggled to get up there. It probably took us 2½ hours to get to the top. When we got there they offered us all the food they had. Whilst we declined, we had to accept it because it would have been embarrassing to their culture and an insult to them. Certainly, the Filipino people in particular are very hospitable, very loving and very dedicated. The Filipino people in Port Pirie also have their own celebration, the Santo Nino celebration, with a great festival followed by a great food arrangement and traditional dancing by their groups.

We also have various other nationalities living in our community, with people from India, Pakistan, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, England, Scotland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Ireland, Romania, Vietnam—and I am going to get told off by my community in Port Pirie because I am sure I have missed quite a few there. As I say, we are a great multicultural community and, everywhere I go, we have no problems whatsoever. With our great diversity in population, we have numerous different churches of different faiths and every church works extremely well for the greater benefit of all our population, irrespective of their nationalities.

When a mosque was first mooted, there were a couple of concerns from some areas about the establishment of a mosque in our community, but this is not a typical mosque. They purchased an old disused building and made that their mosque. It has been there for five or six years now and there has been no problem whatsoever. The Muslims and others attend there to pray and no-one is ever concerned about the whole thing. I have attended several celebrations with the Muslim community and, along with everyone else in our community, their main focus is a very united and diverse community, looking after everyone who may need some assistance.

If it were not for our overseas doctors, surgeons and other medical fraternity in our community, we as a community would not be where we are today. I have made it quite clear in this house, I have spoken to the federal member, I have written to the federal Minister for Health and also to our health minister, Stephen Wade, that in Port Pirie we have a shortage of doctors. If it were not for the overseas doctors coming in, we would be in diabolical trouble, and other regional areas would be the same. We have dedicated people, they are mixing with the community and they are very good.

I also mention that if it were not for multiculturalism in our city, I would not have met my late wife, Arlene, and have the great privilege and pleasure of two loving daughters and also six wonderful grandchildren from my side of our blended family. When Arlene came to Port Pirie at age 14 from Scotland, she was at a different school from the one I attended. I had just left school. We met at a dance, as we did in those days. I asked her to dance, but I could not understand a word she said. Her Scottish brogue and accent were so broad that I just could not understand one word she said.

So, being the gentleman I am, I declined and said, 'Excuse me, you come back in a couple of years' time when you can speak English,' and moved on to the next one.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. G.G. BROCK: Members, don't get excited. But what happened was I learnt how to understand Scottish. Two years down the track, she came back and it was just like a love story. Therefore, I do say that without that happening I do not think I would be in the position I am today, even though we have had lots of tragedy since then. I will forever be thankful for multiculturalism.

Another great aspect of our community is our Aboriginal population, who are a very proud and respected part of our community. I have great respect for their traditions and also their language. I work very closely with Tapari Wellbeing in our community in their work to assist the Aboriginal population. We also have a young lady who attended school with my children, Elaine Crombie, who has achieved great success in the acting arena and who has appeared in many films and was on the front page of The Advertiser this week promoting activities at the Fringe.

Before I came back to Pirie in 1978, I had the opportunity of living in Port Augusta when I was an area manager for BP Australia. There was the German Club there and others I attended and had a great rapport with. I travelled the Far North and had the privilege—and I mean the privilege—of travelling to Mimili, Ernabella Station and all the stations in the north and the APY lands. When you visit these people, you get a real sense of tradition, a real sense of culture and you understand how they live and work.

I am sure the members for Stuart and Giles would be saying the same thing. We learn a great deal from visiting these people and understanding what they are doing and their beliefs. Certainly, I have the greatest admiration for those people and I remember very clearly my trips to Mimili, Ernabella Station, Indulkana and others, sitting around the camp fire with the elders and listening to what they would tell me—without divulging their secrets. That was nearly 45 years ago, but I still remember those days very vividly.

From a personal point of view, I want to point out that one of my doctors is from India and one is from Pakistan. My dentist is from India and also a member of the multicultural board, SAMEAC. Dr Neni has given me plenty of advice and opportunities. He is a great person and a great family person. He always wants to talk politics, but he wants to talk politics when he has the drill in your mouth, so you cannot argue back.

As Mayor of the Port Pirie Regional Council for six years, I had the great privilege—and I think the member for Colton or somebody on the other side mentioned this—of attending citizenship ceremonies. I attended and performed over 50 ceremonies for people becoming Australian citizens. One of the things I stressed to them was, whatever culture or country they came from, to bring their traditions and their culture to us in Australia and not to forget their own culture. That is something we must remember: we must retain our culture and must never forget it.

At Polish Hill River last Sunday, the member for Waite and I had the opportunity to celebrate the 150^th anniversary of the landing of the Polish settlement in South Australia. Polish Hill River, by Sevenhill just outside Clare, was one of the first places Polish immigrants went to. You can imagine them coming to Australia 150 years ago with basically nothing at all—no compasses, no GPS, no radio, nothing. When you look back, that is what would have happened to our early explorers, and it would have been the same for people when they came to Australia, even for the ten-pound Poms, such as my late father-in-law, who came out on at that scheme. Back in the fifties and sixties, it would have been a big move for those people to relocate from their comfortable home to come to Australia, many miles away.

I have some concerns with some of the amendments coming through, but we will talk about that later on. Certainly, I am fully supportive of multiculturalism not only in Port Pirie but in South Australia. I think the world needs to look at Australia as a typical example of how we can all do the right thing, with different cultures living together.

The Hon. R. SANDERSON (Adelaide—Minister for Child Protection) (17:07): I am pleased to have the opportunity today to speak on the South Australian Multicultural Bill 2020. Australia is a nation built on multiculturalism—from our First Nations people, who are our oldest living continuous culture, to welcoming new migrants into our communities and generations who now call Australia home. It is one of the greatest duties as a local member of parliament to attend citizenship ceremonies, as many people in this house have reflected. It is such a wonderful occasion and such a significant time for new citizens to become Australians.

After extensive consultation, the Marshall Liberal government has introduced the South Australian Multicultural Bill, which will replace the South Australian Multicultural and Ethnic Affairs Commission Act and build stronger and more vibrant multicultural communities. The bill modernises the language used to refer to multiculturalism and reforms the current multicultural commission, with the main changes being the removal of the term 'ethnic' and the introduction of the concept of interculturalism.

The bill requires the development of the multiculturalism charter, which will lay a foundation for the development of future government policies and better services for our community. It reaffirms the importance of multiculturalism to South Australia and reasserts our government's commitment to continue to serve and deliver for the contemporary South Australian multicultural community.

I would like to thank the Assistant Minister to the Premier, the Hon. Jing Lee in the other place, who has put so much work and tireless effort not only into this bill but into the multicultural community since she was first elected in 2010. If anybody follows her on Facebook, they would see the amazing number of multicultural events, tours of parliament and meetings with dignitaries that Jing attends.

She is such a very good role model not only for hard work but also for the importance of engaging will all our multicultural communities. It is through Jing that many of us have met so many new people and have a much better understanding of the great work and the importance of our multicultural communities.

I believe that the first bill was introduced under the Liberal Tonkin government, and so some 40 years later I am very proud to be part of a government that is updating this to reflect our true changes and advancements we have in our multiculturalism in South Australia, which I think could be held up as an exemplar of what multiculturalism can achieve in a harmonious way when we all get on and we all work together so well. It is a wonderful achievement.

As the member for Adelaide, I am very fortunate that there are many multicultural associations, societies and groups that do amazing work not only supporting new migrants from their home country, assimilating and joining in with all the multicultural events but also informing others from other cultures about their music, their foods, their culture, their religion and their history. It is such a great way of sharing and learning, and as we know understanding each other is how you breed harmony and peace.

Some of the groups I would like to recognise in my community include Bund der Bayern, and its Oktober is Over is one of the regular events in my electorate, as well as the Adelaide Tamil Association and their Pongal Harvest Festival. I have been to many of those. They are fantastic. The food is lovely and it represents the beginning of the harvest. I have also engaged in some of the art works, which are also amazing.

Also, we have Amazing India held by the Kalalaya School of Indian Performing Arts. Recently, we had the unveiling of the Vietnamese boat people monument, which is amazing, and I would recommend anybody to look at that on the Riverbank just opposite the Torrens Parade Ground. It is a wonderful monument recognising the contribution of the Vietnamese boat people.

Also, recently there was the Chinatown Lunar New Year street party, which was very fortunate to have gone ahead just before the beginning of COVID lockdowns in 2020. It went back to pretty much normal this year, of course, with the QR codes and all the safety precautions. Unfortunately, the Tet Festival did not go ahead this year, however that is another wonderful event with the Vietnamese community celebrating the Lunar New Year.

We also have the annual Mela Festival, which went ahead recently in Victoria Square. There is Indofest for the Indonesian Association. Of course, we just heard about the Blessing of the Waters for the Greek Orthodox community held both in Glenelg and Henley Beach each year. We have the Glendi Festival, Carnevali for the Italian community, Bastille Day for the French and the Eid Festival signifying the end of Ramadan celebrated by Muslim communities.

In addition, we have the Korean Festival, and I have been to many, as well as the Diwali Festival celebrated by the Sri Lankans. I have been to Tongan celebrations, and of course yesterday being St Patrick's Day there was not the usual street parties and parades; however, I am sure there will be again next year, and that is another very significant day.

South Australia, as we know, is known as the City of Churches and that shows our compassion, empathy and understanding of differences in religion to start with, but now also through different cultures and ethnic backgrounds Adelaide is really such an amazing place because of the way we have done that. I love the idea of interculturalism, where cultures all mix and mingle, learn from each other and understand, and that breeds tolerance, which is very, very important. I commend this bill to the house.

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (17:13): I will not hold up the house for very long, I just want to add my thoughts to the bill, which, of course, is most necessary. Again, as other members have done, I commend the Hon. Jing Lee for her work. However, it is of great concern to me, having been be assured everything within this bill was okay and accepted by the community, to find out it was not. I am not really sure how it could have got to the position it did without us making sure all the kinks were ironed out of the issues raised by the bill. I am really grateful we have had the chance to work with the communities and the stakeholders and come back to a position we think is now acceptable to everybody and achieves the aims of the bill.

We have all had a bit of a talk today about our own connections to migration. Of course, my mother came from Italy. She was born in Australia, but her parents came from Italy in 1912. Our house was the first house in our area to have coffee—and I mean real coffee—and pasta, so while the member for Frome talked about pizzas, which have a very special meaning in his lexicon of terms, pasta was the big one for us.

The Hon. D.C. van Holst Pellekaan: He's a big fan of pizza, we know that.

Ms BEDFORD: Yes, we all had a little giggle. We all had a little giggle about that some time ago, so we have moved on. It has been pointed out that Australia had many countries visiting it from the very early days when, of course, the Dutch were on one side of the coast and the British on the other, and the Portuguese and the French and everybody else in between. What has been a continuous thread, of course, are the First Nations, and our First Nations people are to be acknowledged and admired for their ability to continue in the face of colonisation.

As someone said earlier, language is such an important part for every group of people who come to this country. As the member for Frome indicated in his contribution, if you cannot understand somebody it is very hard to work through what they are talking to you about.

At the moment, in the electorate of Florey we have the Campania Club, which is on land bought by the Italian communities. Unfortunately, none of them live in my electorate. They all come there to socialise. The Vietnamese community has a very large Catholic centre in Pooraka. Vietnamese people from all over the city come and it is the largest church service every Sunday that I have ever seen.

We now have new communities emerging in our electorates: East Turkestanis—people from a part of the world where they have been forced to migrate to Australia most recently—Indian communities and Pakistani communities. They are all new communities, along with Sudanese communities and other African communities that are now coming through. But the first and most populous group in our area are the British, and the Clovercrest Hotel and the Modbury Soccer Club and all those places are definitely home for all those people.

Another group I must mention, as I conclude my contribution, is the Migrant Women's Lobby Group and their work over my almost 25 years in this place and prior to that when I worked for a federal member. The Migrant Women's Lobby Group worked hard to establish the needs of women in Adelaide and worked in every sphere of the community and on every issue you could think of, and I want to commend all those women.

There are too many of them to name, but I want to name Irene Krastev, who herself was a force to be reckoned with. She made the Bulgarian community very proud on more than one occasion. I commend the deliberations of the house. We will be working through the amendments as they come to the committee.

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Planning and Local Government) (17:18): Firstly, I acknowledge the contribution of members on behalf of the Premier as the Minister for Multicultural Affairs. The contributions have been both entertaining and informative, and I think that is reflective of the significant amount of importance this legislation has to our parliament. We significantly respect the history of its development.

May I also acknowledge the shadow minister and her appointment as the shadow minister and the member for Cheltenham as the assistant minister. I think he is in a continuing role in the consideration of the development of this bill. The Premier has been ably assisted by the Hon. Jing Lee as his assistant minister in the development of the review and receipt of submissions, application of diligent attention to the development of the bill and generally through the progress of the matter. I thank members who have acknowledged those who assist us in this task, both from the department and from the commission.

While I am on that, I also acknowledge the chairman, Norman Schueler, and deputy chair, Tony Cocchiaro. They have both demonstrated considerable leadership in the commission, along with other members of the commission of course, but also former members of the commission who have undertaken this role essentially since 1984—not all continuously, but obviously with different complements.

The significant story of migration for South Australia I summarise by saying that after the first Australians, our First Nations people, came here somewhere between 40,000 and 60,000 years ago. When I was at school it was 40,000. I remember giving an address to my school and I had to learn it by rote, and I can still remember it, you might be surprised to hear, Mr Speaker. But current academics now put that closer to 60,000 years ago. I applaud the Premier and indeed the parliament for supporting the initiative of properly recognising our First Nations people in this legislation.

They were migrants when they came to Australia. They came from different parts of Asia and Europe and across the continent, and I think that should be recognised. They have been here for tens of thousands of years, and it is time that that omission be remedied. Obviously, in more recent centuries, white settlement has occurred. Indeed, there has been recognition by a motion in this parliament, and in the other place, of our First Peoples coming and of course of South Australia's settlement.

I can proudly say that my grandchildren are eighth generation South Australian. My father's description of our family's history in South Australia, which I think I was explaining to you Mr Speaker, was one where the question, 'How long have you been here?' was usually responded to by, 'I'm not sure, it's so far back. I'm not sure whether we are black or white.' Nevertheless, we do have a proud contribution in the Chapman and Calnan side, and the Harvey side.

Predominantly, like a lot of South Australians, we were a mixed bag. So I disclose mine as largely English, Welsh and German. Again, my father would turn in his grave if he knew this, but in recent years I have learned that Jeremiah Calnan, who married into the Chapman family, whilst he came out from England for the first settlement in the first ship to South Australia, which settled on Kangaroo Island, in fact hailed from Ireland. Nevertheless, it is probably better that he has passed having not learnt that so that we did not have some family concerns raised.

On a more serious matter, the areas of concern that have been raised—and a couple of members have touched on this—in the development of the bill are ones that I hope to respond to in recognition of what has actually happened here. It seems that the legislation was introduced in the latter months of last year. There had been consideration by a consultation process of the legislative review from 2019, and a number of written submissions were received.

There were three submissions which I think touch on areas of importance that probably go to the core of what may or may not have been omitted, or may or may not have been misunderstood as being an omission in how this is to operate. Bear in mind that the first item of business in the multicultural bill before us is to repeal the South Australian Multicultural and Ethnic Affairs Commission Act 1980.

Let me say that that was a piece of legislation that was passed at a time when it had a specific task to repeal the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, the Handicapped Persons Equal Opportunity Act 1981 and the Racial Discrimination Act 1976. Of course, the description of some of these acts indicates to us why it is important that language changes, and that has been part of this legislation to modernise the language. I think it is important to remember that the context of the legislation is that it was developed in an era when we had lots of commissions. They seem to have come back in vogue again in recent times.

I recall the South Australian Health Commission was established to accumulate all the responsibilities of local government of the day in relation to hospitals all across the state. They were under the management of local government. There was going to be a centralising of health after I think it was the Bright review, who was a retired judge of the Supreme Court. It was centralised, and they established the South Australian Health Commission.

After that, it went back out of favour and we have gone back to a system which over the years redeveloped the establishment of the Department for Health and a number of health units that we now know today, more recently having restored its boards. These structures do change and we need to appreciate the time in which this was developed.

I always acknowledge the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, which was passed by the then Labor government, having its origins in the private member's bill of Dr David Tonkin, who was the first member for Bragg, who introduced it to establish a dynasty of legislation relating to antidiscrimination and sex discrimination. He started it all, and equal opportunity law was born in Australia. They were interesting times.

I want to refer to three submissions that cast some light on some of the issues that have been raised. The first is the submission received from the Australian Refugee Association (ARA). These are all published. A number of written submissions were received under the review, some 14 of them. I do not in any way want to be disrespectful to the others, but there are three I want to bring attention to. Firstly, the ARA submission outlined a number things, but it also raised the question of what responsibilities the commission should include. On page 2 of its submission, it pointed out that ARA was a member of a stop racism task force, that it had a commitment to that program, and sought that SAMEAC should be more involved in addressing racism and discrimination.

It went on to say that it should therefore have a stronger relationship, including with initiatives such as the task force, and better advocate for those forums. It goes on to say that SAMEAC should also be closely working with the Equal Opportunity Commission to address discrimination, harassment and promote equality across South Australia, including government departments, mainstream services and local business.

It went on to identify a number of other aspects in relation to what the membership of SAMEAC should be, in particular focusing on disability, religion, cultural backgrounds, age and gender, and that there should be some youth focus and representation, and it outlines the benefits of that. I am pleased to say it also strongly endorsed ensuring that First Nations people had a voice and presence within the ethnic communities and in this legislation in particular. We have dealt with the latter. In relation to the representation, I will come back to that.

In relation to this question of there being an endorsement of the task force program, I do not think it goes so far as to suggest as in a foreshadowed amendment, but it does pick up on a matter that relates to another submission made, and that was by the equal opportunity commissioner. On 30 May 2019, she put her submission in outlining again a number of aspects. She outlined what her responsibilities are under her legislation and said:

The Equal Opportunity Commission…has driven the promotion and implementation of the National Anti-Racism Strategy and its associated 'Racism. It Stops with Me' campaign in South Australia since the beginning of the strategy. This has included convening the Stop Racism Taskforce, a roundtable group of 24 South Australian peak bodies, government agencies, academics and social justice advocates. Members of the taskforce come together to identify and promote good practice initiatives to prevent and reduce racism in workplaces and the broader community.

I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debated adjourned.