Interview with Faten El-Dana, Radio 2MFM Sydney
E&OE
Faten El-Dana:
Dear listeners, I would like to welcome to the studios of 2MFM the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social Services with special responsibility for Multicultural Affairs and Settlement Services. Thank you for joining us today and welcome to 2MFM.
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
Good morning and good to be here.
Faten El-Dana:
Thank you. I would like to ask you to tell us a bit about your background please.
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
Well, my background is very much the classic migrant story – my father came to Australia in 1953; my mother came out in 1959 from southern Italy. My parents came from the same town in Italy and they settled here in Australia. I was born; my brother was born five years later. I grew up in Wollongong, very much the classic migrant story. In many ways though, I was lucky to grow up in a place like Wollongong, it was a very multicultural city then as it is very much is now. One of the things – even though I was born here in Australia – I didn’t speak a word of English until I went to school, so in many ways some of those challenges as I was growing up in Wollongong have stood me up in very, very good stead for a career that was very much a community oriented one before I became a Senator, as well as a legal one, and now I am very privileged to have this portfolio of Multicultural Affairs and Settlement Services. I’ve had an interest in this area for many, many years and so I am very pleased to have this responsibility.
Faten El-Dana:
Since you mentioned your portfolio, what is meant by “special responsibility for Multicultural Affairs and Settlement Services”?
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
The Department of Social Services is one of the biggest departments and since we came to office the government has reorganised our Social Services into one very big department. And what we have tried to do is simplify these arrangements by moving about eighteen different programs from five different government departments into seven new programmes all within the Department of Social Services. In Social Services we spend about thirty-five per cent of the government budget, as you can appreciate it is a big chunk of money. We look after human services, aged care, disability, pensions, family payments, family communities, that whole umbrella of community services and a part of that is Multicultural Affairs and Settlement Services. Multicultural Affairs deals with social cohesion. I have dealt with issues in relation to interfaith, basically issues pertinent to social cohesion. Settlement Services are very important. Settlement services are the services that we give to our new migrants who have predominantly come in under humanitarian visas and assist them in their transition to becoming an integral part of the Australian family.
Faten El-Dana:
Since you came to office what have you done to improve the community services?
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
Well, some services that were previously under the Department of Immigration and Border Protection have now come under Social Services. What this has done is make it a lot easier now because the services pertinent to our new arrivals and our multicultural affairs are all under one umbrella. Whereas some of these services before were out posted, if I can put it that way, now they are part of the mainstream of services and I think that is really important because we are one society. It’s important that our services, relevant to our new arrivals, not be put out as separate but become part of the mainstream services.
Faten El-Dana:
Are they all linked together?
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
They are linked together and that’s part of the reforms that we wanted to do in this Department. We have simplified many things. We have recently just had a major grant application process. Those grants closed on the 24th of July and we know that there are many organisations, some of which are from your own Muslim communities that have in the past obtained services that are part of now the Department of Social Services. So we think that’s been a good move. It’s actually interesting, one prominent person in this space I spoke to, and she said that we feel now we are in the mainstream as an Australian family. It is important that our services, we look at them holistically, we ensure all Australians, irrespective of their background, irrespective of nationality, have equal access and equity to services.
Faten El-Dana:
Yes. In February you helped what is known as the Second Action Plan on stopping violence against women from culturally diverse backgrounds. Now, domestic violence, as we all know, is definitely a big issue while some people focus on developing more women refuge homes, we believe more sustainable solutions, like educational workshops and more leadership from youth and spiritual advisers is imperative to combating this issue. What is your opinion regarding this matter?
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
Thank you. This is a very important question. The Minister for Social Services and the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women have primary responsibility for this and I was very fortunate to be part of this, especially because of my interest with CALD – culturally and linguistically diverse – communities. As part of the Second Action Plan there is a particular focus for our CALD communities and that will include additional funding to increase engagement, not just in our CALD communities but in our indigenous communities. We are also looking at ways that we can fund CALD specific primary prevention projects, with the view to developing tools and resources that can be adapted in CALD communities across Australia. We are also looking at phone assistance services for women in CALD communities and working with groups to ensure that the voices of CALD women in particular are heard within this space, also ensuring we do have accessible and translated information. One of the things that I did specifically want to mention is that we also want to ensure overseas spouses entering Australia do receive support. We require additional information disclosure by the Australian husband or fianc? applying for an overseas spouse visa as well as additional recourses and materials to support overseas spouses, including information about essential services and emergency contacts in Australia. We recognise that this is an issue and we want to ensure that information is more readily available.
Faten El-Dana:
Senator as you know the requirements for visa applications to Australia are extensive in terms of the required paperwork and the lengthy process involved. The Department of Immigration and Border Protection encourage all applicants to engage their website for an understanding of the visa type, waiting periods and requirements. What support has been put in place for assisting migrants particularly those these fluent in the English language for gaining an understanding of the visa application process and for seeking updates on the progress of their visa, once applied?
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
We know that the Department of Immigration and Border Protection certainly has a lot of information on it’s website and I am happy to assist in providing further more detailed information. I think it is important to know that for non-English speakers we have telephone interpreters that can be accessed through the translator and interpreting service which itself is run through the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. I am happy to leave you some details in relation to that and some information that you may wish to pass onto your listeners.
Faten El-Dana:
In August you were pleased to launch a report into education, employment, family and living arrangements for culturally and linguistically diverse people and refugee youth. On a broad note employment rates are lower for CALD communities and refugee youth compared to the Australian born population. What have you found to be are the underlying reasons for this trend and what is being down by the government in relation to the findings of this report?
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
This was a very important report and clearly will help us to inform our future decisions. There are a couple of points that I want to make about this report. The report actually confirms a very important statistic that is twenty five per cent of Australia’s youth population, that is 923,000, young people come from a culturally and linguistically diverse background. The report looks at education, employment, family and living arrangements for CALD and refugee youth. What that report finds broadly is that the rate of participation for education for our CALD and refugee youth is comparable to our Australian born youth, if not slightly higher because there is a stronger emphasis put on education in migrant communities. We know that education is a fundamental component. For me, growing up as the daughter of migrants in this country, and I know many migrant families, for them the education of their children is vitally important. So we have seen that within CALD communities there is a very strong emphasis on education and whilst the report notes that the employment rates for our CALD and refugee youth compared to the Australian youth population is higher, I think you need to look at it in the context of a greater emphasis on education and training. So there is a higher proportion of them involved within education and training. But over time and over the generational change, the report actually finds that there is a convergence. So we are finding among the migrant youth there is a stronger emphasis on education and training and that accounts for that part of it. It is a very good report and I commend Professor Hugo for that report. It did provide us with some very good evidence and data collection which will inform our decision as how best to help young people into the future.
Faten El-Dana:
Senator, there are two problems which destroy communities: extremism and racism. Our unwavering narrative is that we do not support extremism in any shape or form and we have been very vocal in condemning extremism and also highlighting the negative ramifications on the Muslim community as a result of the extremist practices by some misguided minority groups. In the wake of the raising of the terror alert to high the Prime Minister last month convened the consultation meeting with some community representatives about the introduction of the new terror laws. Since you were somehow engaged in these community consultations perhaps you would have noticed the most serious concern, the part about travelling to the no-go zones remains the issue of discrimination. Don’t you think that there should be a review of the discrimination laws as they currently stand to ensure that Muslims are not unduly discriminated against because of these tough new laws?
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
Can I just make it very clear that as a part of the discussions the Attorney has indicated that he is considering making it an offence to visit a declared area without a legitimate purpose. What I would like to do is to drill down to what that actually means for your listeners. We are considering creating a new offence of entering or remaining in a declared area overseas. We have listed terror organisations who are engaging in hostile activities without a legitimate purpose. Our aim is basically to help our law enforcement agencies bring to justice those Australians who have committed serious offences, including the association with or fighting with known terrorist organisations overseas. This offence would not prevent a person from travelling overseas including to a declared area for a legitimate purpose. What is a legitimate purpose? A legitimate purpose for travelling to a declared area could include providing humanitarian aid, performing official government business or UN duties, or visiting family, working as a professional journalist, appearing before a court and there could be a number of legitimate reasons. These proposals and can I underline these are proposals that are being considered, they are not yet enacted into law. In the event that new laws are enacted affecting travel to declared areas they will obviously be updated as a part of travel advices and there is also clear information available on the national security website about what is a listed terror organisation. Can I stress that they are being considered and they are not yet been enacted. What would happen is that the Foreign Minister would declare a particular area to be a declared area. That declaration of itself goes through a legislative process so it would be a disallowable instrument. It is a technical term that means it would come before the Parliament and would be debated in the Parliament. Insofar that you may have the umbrella legislation that may allow the Foreign Minister to declare a particular area a declared zone and then when you start declaring particular areas, my understanding is that it would be a separate instrument which would itself subject to parliamentary scrutiny. So there are a number of still steps within this process before we get to that point. I wanted to make this very, very clear in relation to the issue of declared zones.
Faten El-Dana:
Some people have concerns that they are going to be targeted because they are going to visit family and how are they going to prove that their reasons are genuine. This is the concern.
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
The focus here is engaged in activities without a good reason. As I have indicated there are legitimate reasons for people travelling. And during the community consultations that I attended with the Attorney-General, Senator Brandis, this was an issue that was raised and indeed the Attorney has taken those concerns very much on board, particularly in terms of the explanation of legitimate reasons. So rest assured that that is an issue that has been taken on board by Senator Brandis.
Faten El-Dana:
As you mentioned, in one of your speeches, it is shocking that around one in five Australians has experienced race hate talk such as racial abuse, racial slurs or name calling. More than one in 20 have been physically attacked because of their race. In your opinion how can we tackle the issue of racism which is on the rise due to current events and how can people stand up to it?
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
I think we have seen recent events, and in Newcastle just a few days ago, have indicated that there are concerns amongst the general public standing up for these racist attacks. Can I say, and I have been very categoric, and I hope that some of your listeners have had the opportunity to see a piece I wrote in the Australian last Saturday on this particular issue. Racism and particularly attacks on our women are totally intolerable and what people wear is not the issue. Can I particularly commend the Muslim communities for the tolerance that they have shown, often in difficult times. This is not about religion. As the Prime Minister has said, this is about extremists who are totally abusing Islam as a religion and it is regrettable that the women, particularly our Muslim women here in Australia, are bearing the brunt of this. It is unfortunate and it should not be happening. The overwhelming majority of our Muslim communities, in all their diversity, are law abiding citizens who have come to this country or who were born in Australia and are building a better life for themselves. The women are very important as the mothers, the aunts, the sisters, the cousins. They are at the frontline of assisting our youth people, counselling them, stopping them from travelling and therefore they are vitally important to us. I would therefore urge tolerance and I would urge people to desist from attacking women in this circumstances.
Faten El-Dana:
My last question to you. It is unfortunate that some Australian media in its bid to make the news more sensational, and eventually make more money, ignite racial tension and causes racial intolerance and religious vilification. It also saddens us that some politicians use inflammatory language which unfortunately causes division, rather than using a more tolerant approach. As a politician yourself, and in addition to what you have mentioned earlier and I know you said much and I thank you for that, what are you doing to remind the public to have more commitment to tolerance?
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
We have some very good programs. We have Harmony Day, we have Racism.It Stops with Me. Let’s not forget Faten, that we are one of the most socially cohesive nations in the world. Since 1945, seven and half million people have been welcomed to the Australian family. Forty-five per cent of us were either born overseas or have at least one parent born overseas. We speak about three hundred different languages. So we are one the most socially cohesive nations on earth. And the reason that we are one of the most socially cohesive nations on earth is because we have an overriding commitment to Australia and most importantly, its values and its laws. Whilst there are pockets of intolerance and we have seen some of those pockets of intolerance, generally, I think we are a very tolerant nation. By our very diversity you can see that we are a strong nation and we are a nation that is stronger as a consequence of its social diversity.
Faten El-Dana:
Finally Senator, we at the Muslim community radio always say that we denounce extremism and terrorism and we are always willing to participate in any project that will protect the safety and the security of our country, Australia. We wish you all the success in your endeavours to guarantee peace and harmony for the wider Australian community and thank you very much once again for your time today.
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
Thank you.