2004 Symposium

Speech given by Stepan Kerkyasharian at the 2004 CRC Symposium

7 July 2004

It has been just over six months since the last Community Relations Symposium and I am pleased to see a mix of both familiar and new faces amongst the crowd.

Today, we have brought together people from a wide range of community organisations to exchange information, share experiences and discuss issues that are at the forefront of our multicultural society.

Today, we will build on our knowledge, capacity and skill by developing networks, discussing successes and failures and exploring the potential of innovations.

And today, we are to hear from fresh, young minds, their thoughts on the society that surrounds them. We have students from Colo High School and Sydney Girls High School debating the topic, That Multiculturalism is Unifying the Nation.

It will be a passionate debate about a contentious issue.

Maybe some of us won’t like what is said. Maybe some won’t agree with the sentiments. But I can tell you now that what is said will test our thinking. I look forward to the challenging arguments that will be raised via this debate.

Much has been said recently by high profile columnists and opinion leaders that multiculturalism has failed Australia , or that multiculturalism divides our nation.

It is the policy of multiculturalism which allows you to speak to your children in your own language.

It is multiculturalism which allows you to have your community organisations and be proud of your heritage.

It is multiculturalism which allows you to feel secure in Australia and not feel threatened even though you have a different sounding name or you worship in a different way from that of your neighbour, or you wear different kinds of clothes, or even, despite being a fifth generation Australian, your face looks different from others around you.

The question therefore I ask “is this a failure”? Perhaps it is, therefore today’s debate will be enlightening.

For me what is really exciting is that we, the more senior protagonists of multiculturalism, will now be confronted with the realities which will face the Australian leaders of tomorrow.

In many ways therefore this symposium organised by the Community Relations Commission For a multicultural NSW will be seen as the beginning of the process where we hand over the baton of leadership of our ethnically, linguistically and racially diverse society to the next wave.

In some ways this must be seen as a new beginning.

We in the old guard must appreciate that young people, like those we are going to hear from very soon, have had a very different experience of cultural diversity. They have not seen their landscape change dramatically before their eyes or had to enter a country were everybody seemed different and where life was very different from what they had known previously. For today’s teenage Australians, the world is quite naturally diverse. It’s not even an issue. It’s not worth debating.

What is worth debating, for young people, are the policies of multiculturalism. How do we manage and mould that diversity for the common good? Did we get it right in the past? How should we do it in the future?

In any case there must be generational change because a great deal of the policies of recent decades have been influenced by a kind of nostalgia for the homelands. But the significant majority of Australians today of non-English speakers, or non Caucasian, or non Christian background don’t come from somewhere else. They are Australians, and Australia is their homeland – a homeland which is a culturally diverse society. Our challenge now is to formulate polices that maximise the benefits of that diversity and guarantee equality.

The New South Wales Government is showing the way in recognising this changeover. Recently the government acted through the Parliament to amend legislation and appoint two young people as full members of the Community Relations Commission. And, youth commissioners Margaret Kama and Benny Peng are with us here today.

And today an important debate by Sydney teenagers will set the tone for this annual symposium. In the workshops which will follow we will also emphasise the views and needs of youth.

It flags the challenge for old and young. The challenge for the pioneers, the stalwarts, the founding fathers of community organisations is to choose the right time to stand aside – so as not to stifle the enthusiasm of the young. The old guard must make way and, in fact, give their younger members the same opportunities which they, as young people, created for themselves as new immigrants all those years ago.

Conversely, I call on young members of communities to seize the challenge of leading their organisations. I understand that if they are not given a go they will loose interest in community affairs and, as we were told at last year’s symposium by Professor James Jupp of the Australian National University , community organisations will wither and die and with them will go the continuity of language and culture.

This state of New South Wales values both language and culture as key economic and cultural assets. We will be a poorer nation if we allow this to happen.

However we must not forget that that living in a multicultural and multireligious society is an on-going challenge. I am challenged constantly as I witness acts of injustice and transgressions perpetrated on the innocent.

And it feels as though I see wrongdoings on a daily basis. Those things we can and must address.

Today, it’s international events that shape much of the agenda for community relations in NSW. The continuing tensions in Iraq , the fear of terrorist activity in the upcoming Athens Olympic Games and the possibility of a domestic terrorist attack affect us all.

It affects us because fear and unfounded hatred emanate from the ignorant and the bigoted.

And the ignorant and the bigoted feed their fears to others. This can result in horrific incidents such as the desecration of places of worship, physical or verbal harassment or racist graffiti. In the last few months, we have witnessed a Muslim prayer hall being smeared in pig’s blood, graffiti saying that ‘Jews make good lampshades’ and young people being hospitalised from injuries sustained due to race-based attacks.

These are the challenges we face. We must concede that not everyone will get along. We must transcend the mantra of living in harmony and instead work towards living in understanding.