Ethnic Senior Citizens Forum: The Changing Face of the Victorian Community

October 4, 2007, Preston

Address by Peter van Vliet , Executive Officer

Thank you for the opportunity to speak at today’s forum and I welcome you all. May I begin by paying my respects to the traditional indigenous owners of the land and their elders past and present.

It gives me great pleasure to speak on behalf of the Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria today on the changing face of the Victorian community.

When Gaetano asked me to speak today he said he wanted the stats on multiculturalism in Victoria and inner-North Melbourne.

So my speech today will include many statistics. If you are numerically challenged I advise you to switch off and go and make yourself a cup of coffee.

But before I get too far into the details, the key fact to remember is Victoria is arguably Australia’s most multicultural state. And here in Darebin you are right in the epicentre of multicultural Victoria.

And with today’s forum in mind, the multicultural component of your local population definitely peaks in the older age groups. Firstly today I want to speak on the changing face of Victoria and then I will hone in on the Darebin and Moreland areas. As I said earlier Victoria is arguably Australia’s most multicultural state, just ahead of New South Wales.

In Victoria 20% of the population or one million out of five million people speak a language other than English at home. 43.5% of Victorians including myself were either born overseas or have one or more parents born overseas. That’s 2.2 million people!

This huge increase in multicultural Melbourne has predominantly been the result of post-war migration which saw one million migrants come to Victoria, mostly from Europe. We can look at Victoria’s social history as having three phases. The indigenous phase up until around 1830. The Anglo-Celtic Australian phase up until the second world war and then the multicultural phase from about 1950 on.

In more recent years Victoria’s migrant intake has been much more diverse than during the post-war period. Today Victoria’s migrants come from countries like India, Sudan and Sri-Lanka as well as our traditional feeder country of the United Kingdom. From the 1970s we also saw a significant intake of Vietnamese migrants which continues today.

But the continental Europeans have largely stopped migrating to Victoria as the European economies have recovered. This means that many of our continental European groups have ageing populations. The other significant feature of Victoria’s population is that it is ageing rapidly. Within a year the seniors, or over 60 population will be one million or around one in five Victorians. And in that ageing community there is massive diversity. It is worth noting that in just five years—2011—38% of the over-65 population in Melbourne will be from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

That’s a powerful statistic—38% of over-65s across Melbourne will be from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds by 2011.

By country of birth the Italian, Greek, German, Polish and Dutch communities are now the largest older culturally and linguistically divers populations in Victoria in that order. By 2021 the oldest Victorian CALD communities in order will be the Italian, Greek, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Macedonian communities. This shows the eventual emergence of Asian communities in our community’s ageing profile.

Victorians are living longer than ever and we have lower birth rates. But by 2044 more than one quarter of Victorians will be over the age of 65, hopefully including me. This all adds up to an older community.

This also causes economic strains. Currently in Victoria we have six taxpayers for every retiree but in 25 year there will only be three taxpayers per retiree. Further still we are not only in the grips an ageing crisis we are also in the grips of a related skills crisis.

By 2010 Victoria is expected to have a shortage of somewhere around 50,000 skilled workers. In Australia the skilled workers shortage will be around 200,000. This scenario is set to make some of our in-demand skilled tradespeople small fortunes.

Our combined ageing and skills crises point to the need for a continued strong immigration program despite the present anti-immigration rumblings of some federal members of parliament. But that is an argument for another day.

Having looked at the statistics across Victoria I now want to look briefly at the statistics in Darebin and Northland where we are today. This includes the suburbs of Preston, Brunswick, Glenroy and Pascoe Vale, Northcote, Fairfield and Thornbury.

Can I firstly say that in Darebin and Moreland you are living very much in the heart of Victorian multiculturalism.

Moreland and Darebin rank 5th and 6th respectively of the 79 Victorian local government areas with the highest percentage of speakers of languages other than English at home. So for cultural diversity you are ranked 6th and 7th out of 79.

According to our 2001 census just over 40% of residents in both municipalities speak a language other than English at home. That’s a huge figure.

But if we drill down further and look at our senior citizens the multicultural population in these two municipalities gets even bigger.

Currently in the City of Darebin, around 9,000 people or 47% of the 65+ age cohort are from CALD backgrounds. Darebin’s CALD numbers will exceed 50% of the 65+ population in the next ten years.

In the City of Moreland the ethnic seniors’ figure is higher still with 10,000 people—already 50% of Moreland’s seniors’ population.

In Darebin and Moreland the top five over-65 or older ethnic communities are somewhat different to the rest of Melbourne.

The largest older ethnic groups are the Italians with around 10,000 older people, followed by the Greeks with around 4,000, Maltese with around 600, and Arabic and Macedonian people with around 500.

So the older population in this area has a more strongly Mediterranean feel than the rest of Victoria. For instance the number of German, Polish or Dutch older people is smaller in this area when compared with other parts of metropolitan Melbourne.

So in Moreland and Darebin and more or less in Melbourne cultural diversity is now the mainstream, not the marginal! It’s difficult to argue against multiculturalism when you are multicultural.

But what do all these figures mean. It’s great to throw around statistics but they do need a practical policy context.

What the figures mean is that the State of Victoria has a huge policy challenge not just with population ageing but with older people from non-English speaking migrant backgrounds.

For this significant component of our ageing population we have to ge culturally competent service delivery right. We know that as people age they often revert to their first language. We know many people need more care as they get older.

That is why at Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria we recently released our Multicultural Aged Care Strategy for Victoria’s political parties in the lead up to our State Election.

With many of our post-war immigrants now entering their senior years, there has never been a more urgent need for a comprehensive government policy that addresses the needs of this large cohort of our ageing population.

ECCV’s Multicultural Aged Care Strategy calls for a comprehensive state government policy to address this issue.

This would include strengthening the capacity of ethno-specific service providers to effectively deliver home and community care or HACC services. Services like meals on wheels, activity groups and home help.

The Multicultural Aged Care Strategy includes allowing for more client choice in selecting HACC services. Clients should be able to chose between different service providers as is often the case with residential aged care services. We should be wary of monopoly providers. A diverse community needs diverse services.

ECCV also wants greater funding of ethnic senior citizens clubs so they can run healthy living programs. We want our ethnic seniors to benefit from active and healthy living programs. We also want to ensure any elder abuse in ethnic communities is appropriately addressed.

So getting back to Gaetano’s original question I can say “yes”, Melbourne’s population is ageing, and ‘yes’ our community is very multicultural. Further in Darebin and Moreland you have a large and growing older ethnic population which is predominantly Mediterranean.

In conclusion, Victoria’s ethnic seniors’ population is rising as our post-war migrants age. We need to respond appropriately to the needs of this growing group and I do hope that today’s forum assists with that challenge.

Our post-war migrants have made an enormous contribution to the Victorian community. They have built this state into the economic, social and cultural powerhouse that it is today.

It is important that we give something back to this community in their time of need. ECCV is committed to this challenge. We hope the incoming State Government shares this passion and commits to a multicultural aged care strategy after our November election.

I wish you all the best with today’s forum and I look forward to hearing of the proceedings. Thank you.