A new Commonwealth Office of Multicultural Affairs has been established within the Department of Home Affairs.

This is a step in the right direction, although falling short of the recommendations of the Multicultural Framework Review. Other announced changes to immigration administration might provide clearer leadership.

The new ‘office’ and a bit of history

The latest Department of Home Affairs top structure chart reveals that the government has given effect to its promise, made in early June, to establish a Commonwealth Office of Multicultural Affairs.

This step is part of the government’s response to the Multicultural Framework Review “Towards Fairness – A Multicultural Australia for All” chaired by Dr Bulent Hass Dellal and presented to the government in July 2024.

The other crucial element of the response was to create the role of minister for Multicultural Affairs, at Cabinet level, and give the job to Dr Anne Aly.

Since the inception of Australian multiculturalism in the 1970s, multicultural policy has played a vital role at the Commonwealth level in helping Australia understand its evolving community and defining how an increasingly culturally diverse society should work for the benefit of all. These ideas embraced both those in the migrant community and those in the host community which received them. The entire Australian community was to be the audience.

The work was driven initially from the Office of Multicultural Affairs in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and subsequently, after Howard Government changes, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. Work at the federal level was closely coordinated with the work of state and territory government multicultural offices. Several states and territories have legislation which enshrines the concept of multiculturalism.

Less well-known is that, at times of international crises, the extensive multicultural community liaison networks played a vital role in helping the Australian Government ensure that external pressures arising from........

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