Page 2 - Fifty-fifty July 2021

The Ministry will have the leadership, mana and
visibility to influence decision-making across
government to ensure better outcomes for ethnic
communities. It will engage with communities and
continue to provide other services that ethnic
communities have said they value, such as the Ethnic
Communities Development Fund, Multilingual
Information Network and Nominations Service. It will
be committed to promoting the benefits of ethnic
diversity and already offers an Intercultural Capability
eLearning programme to support this. This
introductory programme is aimed at increasing
people's cultural understanding to better interact or
communicate with people from different backgrounds.
Melvin Singham

The recent Budget provided an additional $5.3 million A number of key themes emerged from these
funding for the new Ministry over the next four years. sessions. Issues like health, education, housing,
This comes after the $4.686 million already agreed by employment, access to government services and
Cabinet in December 2020 and continues the trend of tackling racism came through as important to people
increased funding for the ethnic communities’ across our communities. As people we need and want
portfolio since March 2019. the same things. Better health outcomes, an education
system that allows all of our children to thrive,
The work of the new Ministry will be driven by the economic opportunities, and a society that respects
needs and priorities of ethnic communities. Minister everyone's ethnicity and culture.
Radhakrishnan will set the new organisation's
direction and she has already said that she wants her There is work to do and the new, independent Ministry
priorities to reflect those of our communities. will provide a platform for change. Aotearoa New
Zealand won't be transformed overnight, shifting
Prior to the new Ministry being established, the Office culture takes time and effort. The issues and priorities
of Ethnic Communities ran a number of sessions in that came out of the sessions come under the remit of
towns and cities across the country, seeking input different Government agencies. Clearly the new
from members of ethnic communities and community Ministry will have a role to lobby and influence across
leaders. NZIA attended one of those sessions to Government.
advise on what was important to the Indonesian
community and, where the new Ministry should focus NZIA is looking forward to working closely with the new
its efforts to start with. Ministry and supporting it as best it can. (/NL)
This article is an expansion of what Anusha Guler, Executive Director,
Office of Ethnic Communities, wrote in the “Ethnic Voices” newsletter
of 1 June 2021.

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