Our president and Tasmania’s 2023 Australian of the Year John Kamara was honoured to deliver an address to members of Tasmania’s parliament. The audience also included leaders from culturally and linguistically diverse communities, and stakeholders that work with and support these communities.

Tasmania’s Premier the Hon Jeremy Rockliff was touched by the address and said he is fully committed and ready to working together to help drive the ongoing conversation.

Read full address:

The Road Forward in Building Cultural Diversity in Tasmania.

Bringing the Migration Issues to life in a Personal Way (It is people’s lives not just statistic)

Welcome everyone.

First of all, I would like to pay my respects to the Elders of the Palawa people, past, present and emerging. We’re on their land, the land was never ceded, and I am very mindful of that. I therefore support the First Nations Voice to Parliament to build a more inclusive Australia. I respectfully thank everyone for joining me in the room today - the politicians and parliamentarians from all sides of government who have made time to be here, as well as the community partners and community leaders who have chosen to come and participate. It’s incredibly humbling to be here in such inspirational company. In this address I will seek to bring immigration and settlement issues to life in a personal way, because it is people’s lives that are involved in the resettlement process, and people are not just statistics.

This year I had the great honour of being made the 2023 Tasmanian Australian of the Year. I am incredibly humbled to receive this recognition of my contribution to the Tasmanian and Australian society. So, who am I and what brought me here, to this place, and this work, and this honour? I was driven from my home in Sierra Leone in 1999. My father was killed. Our house was burned down. To stay was certain death. So I fled. I came to Australia as a refugee, and that is a story of escaping from a brutal war, searching for safety, striving for survival. When a person flees their home country due to war it is not through any lack of love for their homeland, its culture, values, people and animals. On the contrary, we are faced with the deep emotional struggle of leaving everything we love behind us. So the opportunity to start a new life here produced many feelings of hope and gratitude, but also sadness, loss and anxiety.

Everything about daily living had to be relearned - the smells, sounds, foods, music, housing, language and laws. Survival was no longer based on sheltering from gunfire and weapons, but instead on navigating the complex challenges of learning a language and gaining employment to secure my future. There was intense pain and uncertainty, but there has also been joy, growth and community as my wife and I have established our family, faced the future, and found purpose in giving back. While reflecting on this speech and about the process I have been through since I arrived I asked myself: “What was it that worked for me? How did I make it?!” One answer is, I quickly decided to educate myself in a complex system, and in a new way of life. I understood that there was no way the community would easily comprehend my starting point but instead I must find a way to adjust to the new way of life. But what could I bring, what could I offer to this long-established and seemingly closed community that I was so new to, and felt so outside of? Fitting in felt like a daunting task.

I repeatedly had eggs thrown at my first home in Launceston. In response I turned to who I am, my culture and my unique way of life, music, dance, food, dress and the vibrant African way of being. I started choir groups, youth groups, I started volunteering. I started singing and dancing at the mall, aged care facilities, hospitals, schools, churches. I passed on what I had learned about resettlement. I started by bringing young migrants together, girls and boys, to help them with their assignments, liaising with schools, social workers and ESL teachers running support classes and programs to help them with their school work and help them understand how to settle in the school environment. I started mediating between police and migrant communities (that could have gone really, really bad!) supporting young people in the court system, physically going to their houses and taking them to soccer/ music/ cultural events and many other activities.

I created programs to engage them and keep them away from trouble, drove them all around town to appointments while supporting them to learn the system, the English, and also the Australian (which is something different!), to look for jobs, write resumes, fill in citizenship applications, apply for family members to join them. I supported them with housing, rental and landlord issues and helped them connect them with mainstream services – all those confounding complexities of navigating the system. Over time, Australia has allowed me to achieve many dreams; to marry and live beyond poverty, to own a home, to inspire my community, give my own children a greater educational experience, and to be able to help others in the community. I strongly believe that our wellbeing is connected to the wellbeing of others, so when we face the challenges and find solutions to community problems it has a flow-on effect.

New conversation at the national level

Now, being Tasmanian Australian of the Year has given me this platform to open up the conversation about integrating migrants and refugees into the economy and the society so that everyone benefits, and we grow together respectfully and prosper. Part of that involves acknowledging where the system needs improvement and I am very happy to acknowledge the federal government’s 2023 Review of the Migration System Report which has just been released. The report outlines a new, coordinated approach to migration aimed at restoring positive Australian values to the system, reducing exploitation, focusing on productivity and regional relationships, and clarifying and articulating the long-term goals of the program to meet Australia’s emerging challenges. The evidence in the report will confirm the view of many struggling with the current system, that it is an ad hoc, opaque, complex and often exploitative regime of regulations which is not fit for purpose and should not be perpetuated.

Systemic failures

Those of us on the front line of dealing with the current system have experienced over and over again the confusing, conflicting and ineffectual policies that do not address the needs of migrants and refugees and in many cases actually work against our successful resettlement and integration. To give just a few examples I have witnessed: study, skills and qualifications can go unrecognized. There is English language testing such as the PTE which can prevent people from accessing study and higher employment. When so much hinges on these tests it can cause terrible stress and I have heard of people so desperate about them that they consider taking their own lives. It is often the case that study that you completed in another country – study that you worked for, paid for, spent time on, invested in - is not recognised in Australia.

There is the relatively short duration of support for refugees, which is not tailored or sustained long enough to meet the needs of many. There is the frustrating restriction of employment and hours under some visa categories. You can’t get a permanent visa unless you have a permanent job and the hurdles to that can seem insurmountable. Resentment and confusion can also arise in the community when inconsistencies are very obvious. For example, when a person from Europe is granted a visa to bring their parents here within a couple of months while a person from Africa is told it will be decades. Feelings of resignation and loss can affect mental health. The current crisis in housing stocks across the country is also heavily impacting the migrant communities who are in particular need of housing that can accommodate extended families so they can provide support for another. There are also barriers to reuniting with family from country of origin when, as a result of war or disrupted systems, they are unable to produce missing documentary evidence around their relationships. This fractures families and causes untold pain. Until recently my own children had never once met their grandparents or other extended family members. It took a very costly trip to preserve these priceless human relationships that most people accept as a right and a fact of life.

These fundamental matters of wellbeing are not incidental. Respect and wellbeing for migrant communities contributes to the wellbeing and prosperity of the whole Australian community and the economy overall. The recently released review of migration report also acknowledged that navigating the array of visa categories can result in people trying to survive in a protracted state of limbo, lacking legal protections, and being vulnerable to exploitation and wage theft. I would also like to emphasise that it increases the risk to women of being exposed to family violence without recourse to protection. Temporary visa categories in particular leave women open to the possibility of coercive control and a terrible feeling of having nowhere to turn. Also significant is the limited opportunity to progress into leadership roles meaning we are too often absent from the discussions and decision-making processes that affect our lives.

A Tasmanian example of this relates to the Multicultural Action Plan, which is being reviewed following the 2019 version which was produced without broad representation from diverse communities. In moving forward the current review of the plan should provide opportunities for the diverse communities to lead the process from the beginning, not just be offered the review to be commented on at the end. There is a broad view within the community that being consulted after a review has been written is not the best way to get informed results. Other marginalised groups have members with lived experience actually leading the conversations relating to them, which has resulted in better policy outcomes because their voices have been included at the formative stage. There are more inclusive ways to capture community voices than to contract one or two organisations and focus on the celebration of culture, however invaluable that is.

Advocacy, education and mentoring are needed in addition to culture to fully meet the existing needs of people who are very much hurting from polices, systems and structures that disadvantage them. So we need to be involved right from the beginning to make policy work meaningful, not consulted after the event. This is a key factor towards reflecting the increasingly diverse Tasmanian community and workforce, and must be a priority.

Current thoughts of migrants and refugees working in the Tasmanian workforce/cultural challenges in Tasmania

Through my work I have heard many firsthand accounts of the multicultural communities’ experiences in the workplace. When it comes to government jobs there is a perception that they are granted on a "who you know” basis and that leadership teams prefer those with whom they were previously connected through education, parent groups, sports groups, and so on.

This deters many CALD professionals from even applying for jobs. And those who have gained employment in the government feel they must preserve that employment by avoiding rocking the boat. There is a felt sense of being required to be grateful for achieving a government job and that in return you must refrain from giving voice to bothersome facts and opinions. There is also the volunteering trap - it is good to volunteer in community as a professional but there is a view that it is a necessary and required step to gaining recognition and potentially being considered for a job. Is this a helpful perception? I’m here today in a voluntary capacity and although I welcome the opportunity, I also ask how long should improvements to the system be sourced from unpaid labour and how can skilled migrants enter the workplace without the inequitable requirement of long periods of donated time? Many professionals are living with the need to contribute to their countries of origin for the survival of relatives, and hence they already have double responsibilities.

Another issue is that middle and senior leadership groups lack cultural diversity, so discrimination is often not perceived and opportunities to instigate meaningful change are lost. To list just a few of my personal experiences, I was recently targeted at my workplace when a photo of me receiving the Tasmania Australian of the Year award was taken down and disappeared whilst many other pictures and photos were not taken down. When people hear this they think it’s a type of one-off event to do with a specific workplace, when actually it is representative of a more widespread attitude. The status quo in Tasmanian agencies is currently very white European and does not yet reflect the Tasmanian community's diverse cultures and this is leading to unacknowledged racism. At work I was told, “You have been given a leadership role to tick the box for cultural diversity, not because of your capabilities or skills.” I was told “You cannot understand when someone has been bitchy because you are a person of colour”. I was publicly shut down among my peers when I wanted to make a contribution and told my ideas were not relevant because I am a person of colour.

Community Lived Experiences

There are many subtle and blatant ways we encounter discrimination. Skills might be downplayed or overlooked completely. Keeping skilled workers functioning below their capacity for literally decades is just a waste of potential productivity and is demoralising and demeaning.

Here are some examples of the types of things that are said to community members in their workplaces on a daily basis. They were said to people I know, but they are quite typical of what many people experience:

“Your pronunciation is difficult for me to understand; therefore, I will not let you represent the Department”. “I don’t want to work with you because you are not from an Australian background”.

“Your Hijab would not look good for our business. It is even making me uncomfortable at times about how to respond”. “You cannot speak your language at work”. And here are some examples of the way workers responded: “Concealing my identity was something I became an expert at during my 17 years of a corporate career. I felt like a bit of an alien. I had a lot of shame.”

“I hit the ceiling in my current role. I can’t progress further because I don’t feel valued at my work and have not been given an opportunity to progress”. “My skills were only recognized after ten years when there was no one else left to fill the role”. “When I introduced myself to my manager and told her what my name was, she responded by laughing and saying that it was a funny name”.

“I have to change my name to a westernised name on my job applications to succeed”. “I have been physically assaulted numerous times by clients. There has been no effort by management to protect and support me. I need the job so I don’t press any charges”. “I am a businessman contribution to the Tasmanian economy. My shop we vandalised and destroyed.

The police can’t do anything about it because no evidence to prove it was a targeted hate crime”.

Overview and challenges

There are elements of the media who actively encourage fear in the community to discourage the embracing of migrants and refugees into Australia, so cultural safety programs to help raise awareness and overcome these issues need to be far more than tokenistic gestures. Long term workforce stability and inclusion have a positive economic and social value. Devaluing and exploiting migrant communities is not just morally wrong, it is damaging to Australia’s security and reputation. We must review these prohibitive barriers when our country is so desperate for skills. If we can get this right, it will not only prevent harm to families and individuals, it will help secure the labour force against future risks, help to build in stability and future-proof the workforce against shocks like pandemics, wars, environmental crisis, and supply chain interruptions.

Let’s raise Tasmania’s profile as a destination for highly skilled workers, workers who stay and deploy the value of their education here where it was gained or bring their existing skills and determination to work hard and contribute to the country. There is an amazing range and depth of talent in our migrant communities here in Tasmania and there are many who continue to defy the odds and make an invaluable contribution. There are those who lead in the delivery of mental health advice and general medical practice, there are young writers who publish and inspire with their creativity and resilience; there are strong, smart Muslim women who mentor in their community, there are Geologist and policy analyst. We are academics, we are aged care workers, we are project managers, and councillors, we are CEOs and businesspeople of all types. We contribute. And we want a Fair Go.

So I am hopeful that through this award, and working together, we can help inspire and generate effective policy change that is holistic and inclusive from beginning to end.

As I begin to conclude, I will leave you with three important points for consideration

1. CONVERSATION: Tasmania, let’s emulate the federal government and start a new, constructive conversation about refugees and migrants and reset the record on our value and our place in Tasmania so that Tasmanians grow together into the future, not apart. Culturally diverse social cohesion, not a fractious and fearful plethora of subgroups who are not delivering their full potential to the State.

2. POLICY: Let’s build targeted policy, to take the unnecessary pain and inefficiency out of the resettlement and migration process. Make it fairer, more humane, more productive of a fair go. I look forward to seeing people of colour in the Tasmania parliament and in places where they can have a bigger opportunity to negotiate laws and policy that impact their daily life, because for all the reasons I have outlined, that is very important.

3. EMBRACING EQUALITY, DIVERSITY AND CARING FOR ALL. Every person has their own story to tell and every story is important and should be embraced with respect, dignity, compassion and opportunity.

Time Frames

At a practical level we need to set some time frames for confronting these issues. As an immediate step there could be acknowledgement of the hurt and pain that has been caused, and a commitment to going forward with mutual respect and cultural safety.

Within a month we could schedule a roundtable discussion with key stakeholders representing cultural diversity in Tasmania to progress the conversation after asking ourselves honestly who has been missing from the conversation.

How can we avoid a closed loop of funding and feedback between the government and a minority of multicultural stakeholders?

Who needs to be at the table? More women? More organisations? More young people? Who?

How can we ensure the conversation is authentic and meaningful and that the voices are heard?

Within three months I suggest we establish an appropriate forum to gather the data and lived experiences of those who have suffered racism and cultural discrimination in their workplaces so that evidence can be compiled, reports can be written, and responses can be targeted. How will we gather this information? How can we ensure the authors of these stories are safe and supported in their sharing? I respectfully suggest that one way is to deliberately recruit staff who actually view culturally and linguistically diverse people as assets, not as “ungrateful inferiors". Established project initiatives and create opportunities for safe cultural space for expression and representation.

Within six months we could identify a group of culturally diverse people in Tasmania to be supported to transition into leadership roles to lead a long-term project, starting with reviewing progress up to that point.

Within nine months we could have appointed the culturally diverse leadership group and have a clear plan emerging. Human Resource practices to retain diverse staff and ensure cultural safety for all would be identified.

By twelve months conversations and new narratives are beginning to be shared in the workplace to support a new way of understanding and working that promotes respect, diversity, safety and inclusion.

A developed plan for effectively responding to racism in the workplace would be delivered through a Finalised Statement of Intent targeting CALD workers (a commitment to growing cultural diversity).

And by two years we are beginning to observe a cultural change across the Public Sector workplace with increased diversity in the leadership groups. This change is also beginning to be demonstrated in private and not-for-profit enterprises. Project development that prepares culturally diverse people for leadership is ongoing, and critically, data collection on discrimination continues.

Conclusion

Together we have the capacity to create change.

People are hurting, resources are being wasted and approaches need to be better targeted, but we can change that and make Tasmania a preferred destination for skilled workers and a creative and cohesive society into the future. Devaluing and exploiting migrant communities is damaging to Australia’s international reputation and regional relationships and is counterproductive when the country is desperate for skills. Respect and wellbeing for migrant communities contributes to the wellbeing and prosperity of the whole Australian community and the whole Australian economy.

And it is the right thing to aim for.

Thank you for listening