State Election Forum: Coalition pledges increased funding for ECCV to strengthen support for multicultural communities

ECCV held a successful State Election Forum at Brunswick Town Hall last week, where overwhelming support was received for our State Election Platform.

More than 130 people attended the event on 20 October and heard from guest speakers Sheena Watt MP (Parliamentary Secretary for Housing, Labor), David Davis MP (Shadow Treasurer, Liberal), Samantha Ratnam MP (Leader of the Victorian Greens) and Fiona Patten MP (Leader of the Reason Party).

Mr Davis responded positively to the recommendations outlined in ECCV’s election platform and announced that a Liberals National Government would substantially increase funding for ECCV’s work, as part of its commitment to deliver better support for Victoria’s diverse multicultural communities.

“A Matt Guy Liberals and Nationals Government will provide an additional $3.3 million over the next four years to ECCV to enable it to better serve multicultural communities, as well as a further one-off $100,000 should its application for charitable status be successful,” he said.

Mr Davis acknowledged ECCV’s vital role as a peak body in providing key support and advocacy for migrant and refugee communities across Victoria. He stated that current funding arrangements were insufficient to keep pace with growing demand and said providing security of funding over the next four years would enable ECCV to better serve multicultural communities.

ECCV chairperson Eddie Micallef welcomed the announcement and reiterated ECCV’s call for a new Victorian multicultural strategy that would lead to greater support and more streamlined funding for the multicultural sector.

“We welcome the Coalition’s funding commitment and recognition of the important role ECCV plays in advocating on behalf of our migrant and refugee communities.

“Our election platform calls for an end to the current drip-funding for the multicultural sector. We need to build long-term capacity through a centralised, responsive and equitable funding model.

“Multicultural organisations have provided critical support to our communities during the pandemic in the past few years and we need greater investment across the multicultural sector.” Mr Micallef said.

ECCV received overwhelming support for our Election Platform from all four MPs present at the Forum, with particular enthusiasm for our call for a co-designed multicultural strategy that takes a whole-of-government approach to engaging and supporting migrant and refuge communities.

“We look forward to further announcements from all parties about their election commitments to support multicultural communities ahead of next month’s election.”

Read more about the event here. Read about our Election Platform and download it here.

Media Inquiries: Victoria Kyriakopoulos, Director of Media & Engagement | M: 0431 091 738 | media@eccv.org.au