Multicultural Grants Program

The Hon. T.T. NGO (15:04): My question is to the Assistant Minister for Multicultural Affairs. Has the assistant minister ever told some community groups to forward the draft grant application to her or her staff directly? If yes, when was the last time that happened?

The Hon. J.S. LEE (15:04): I mentioned in my previous answers that we need to repurpose some of the grants that are unspent to help communities in need, and through that process it is part of the protocol that multicultural community groups will write to me directly and then for the department to go through the assessment process as per normal that will fulfil the criteria as per the guidelines for the grants. I have explained that.

The honourable member who is asking the question, as you know, can I congratulate him on when he launched the Vietnamese boat people monument, which many of the members in this house as well as the other place attended. He did a wonderful job. That money, that funding, those grants he knows full well came from the support of the Marshall Liberal government. When it comes to multicultural communities and the level of support—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Leader of the Opposition is out of order.

The Hon. J.S. LEE: The level of support we give to the communities is something that we—not just the Marshall government but the previous government—have supported. He acknowledged that. The Hon. Tung Ngo at the ceremony acknowledged the bipartisan support and how important it is to have bipartisan support.

The honourable member knows full well when he needed the extra resources because of the COVID impact, because of the pandemic, because of the COVID safe guidelines, he needed to write me a letter. He did understand that process. We fully support what the community needs to do to run a COVID safe program.