Launch of the report, Families and the Law in Australia: The Family Court working together with new and emerging communities
20 May 2008
Acknowledgements
Honourable Diana Bryant, Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia
Justice Nahum Mushin, Chair of the National Cultural Diversity Committee of the Family Court
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
Introduction
It is a great pleasure to be here for the launch of the report: Families and the Law in Australia: The Family Court working together with new and emerging communities.
I would like to congratulate everyone who has participated in the project, including the many community members.
The report is the culmination of a project which has run over four years, and involved 20 community groups and 52 community-based organisations across four states.
The project aimed to make family law more easily accessible and responsive to members of the Afghanistan, Iraqi, Eritrean, Ethiopian, Sudanese and Somalian communities in Australia.
The work that has gone into this report is impressive.
It emphasises the importance of making services more culturally sensitive and accessible to a diverse community, in both metropolitan and rural locations.
Australia's diversity
Australia prides itself on being one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world. We are a country where 43 per cent of people have at least one parent born overseas.
Australians speak over 200 languages, including Indigenous languages, and identify with more than 270 ancestries.
The Australian Government is committed to meeting the diverse needs of our community.
We want to see services that are flexible in the way they are delivered, and we want to encourage a spirit of innovation across government and the broader community.
Projects like this one demonstrate an excellence in culturally appropriate government service delivery, and this is the type of approach we want to replicate.
The project and focal communities
This project has also provided a valuable opportunity for professionals from several agencies to meet and consult with community members.
Face-to-face engagement is crucial if we want to encourage flexible and innovative service delivery.
It helps us find out what our clients and our communities are thinking, what their needs are, and how we can better provide for these.
The reach of the Family Court project was also impressive, with more than 45 government and non-government agencies involved with over 1500 community members.
The intention was to create a two-way learning process aimed at strengthening community leadership and cross-community connections, and enhancing the cultural capital of professionals in the Family Court.
Diversity and the experience of new and emerging communities
Experience prior to, and during the project, showed that communities from the Horn of Africa and Middle East have some specific needs, especially those who have come to Australia through the Humanitarian Program.
Some of these clients have very low education and literacy levels, they have experienced torture and trauma, they have a fear and mistrust of government and authority.
This can make engagement pretty challenging.
More broadly, all new and emerging communities face challenges in Australia, which include:
- dislocation;
- inevitable changes to extended family structures;
- different kinds of housing;
- different jobs and conditions; and
- being confronted with an array of cultures different to their former country.
Australia's response to settlement by a diversity of peoples and cultures includes the provision of accommodation, health care, education, translation assistance and English language support.
The Government is also keen to support projects like this that strengthen communities and promote a sense of belonging and, critically, that help to inform the culture of our own institutions like the Family Court.
The role of the Family Court in engendering social cohesion
While government services strive to be non-discriminatory and accessible, new arrivals to Australia are often at a disadvantage when navigating public institutions and the law.
Among the cumulative stresses of settlement in a new country, can be uncertainty about gender roles, parenting practises, fear of losing your cultural identity, and a distrust of authority.
These things can easily add to anxiety and family conflict.
Effective service delivery relies on professionals having a real understanding of the communities that they aim to support.
Through this Family Court project, those at the interface with communities learn and develop their skills in engaging effectively with clients from diverse backgrounds.
In reading this report, it is clear that community-driven solutions have a much greater chance of success, and of being sustainable in the long run.
The report shows that 'involvement' is the key to engendering community ownership and responsiveness.
It recommends strategies based on a model of mutual transference of information and knowledge.
Importantly, it also shows that leaders and members of the community are best placed to be those agents of change.
In addition, new and emerging communities can make significant contributions to both culturally-appropriate education about the law, and to the cultural understanding and sensitivities of our public institutions.
Conclusion
The Australian Government wants those people who settle here to know that they can have confidence in, and that they can trust, our legal system.
The experience of all those involved in this project illustrates the value that our society places on diversity in all its various forms.
It also demonstrates that our society is based on an over-riding and unifying commitment to Australia.
I'd like to once again thank everyone who has contributed to this project and report.
See:
URL: http://www.minister.immi.gov.au /parlsec/media/speeches/2008/lf080520.htm
Last update: 18 August 2008 at 18:10 AEST