Wednesday, 24 June 2009
Deadline extended for African Australians project
The Australian Human Rights Commission has extended the deadline for its national consultation with African Australians by one month.
National Race Discrimination Commissioner Tom Calma said submissions would now be received up until 31 July.
“We’ve decided to extend this deadline from 30 June because the cultures of many African Australian communities mean that they are more comfortable communicating orally, and more inclined to talk through issues than to put pen to paper,” Commissioner Calma said.
“It’s been particularly encouraging to see that groups of people are coming together and collaborating on submissions which is giving a voice to people who may otherwise have found it too difficult to prepare a submission on their own.
“The point of this project is to hear first-hand from African Australian communities on what they consider to be the major issues they confront and if it means being more flexible with the timelines, then I am absolutely happy to make sure there is extra time.”
Commissioner Calma said the project kicked off in March with the launch of a discussion paper, African Australians: A report on human rights and social inclusion issues, and aimed tobuild a national picture of the experiences of African Australians in the areas of employment and training, education, health, housing and justice.
He said the discussion paper explored issues for members of African communities in Australia and was being used to guide the national consultation and submission processes. He said the project would ultimately suggest improvements to policy and service delivery.
“Although there has been some localised research, there is currently no national picture of what African Australians contend with on a daily basis but we know from consultations to date that they often have to overcome a range of barriers including accessing employment and training opportunities through to access to justice issues and broader health-related issues, for example,” Commissioner Calma said.
“In order to make it easier for people we have also shortened the submission questions by collapsing the key areas for discussion into six key questions which can be addressed online or can be downloaded from the web.
“I urge all members of African Australian communities to have a say about the areas they think need to be improved in order to assist their equal participation in Australian society.”
The discussion paper and link to the online form can be found at www.humanrights.gov.au/africanaus
The project has been co-funded by project partners including: the Australian Human Rights Commission (through National Action Plan funding); Adult Multicultural Education Services (AMES) in Victoria; Australian Red Cross; Diversity Health Institute; and the Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA).
Media contact: Louise McDermott 0419 258 597
