VICTORIA’S multicultural affairs minister has condemned recent incidents of racial vilification targeting Ballarat’s Indigenous community.
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During a trip to the city on Friday discuss the multicultural needs of the region, Robin Scott touched on two separate incidents including three year-old Aboriginal girl, Samara Muir, racially vilified at a Melbourne shopping centre and a bigoted attack on the city’s leading Aboriginal organisation during a week of national celebration for Australia’s people.
Mr Scott’s visit coincided with NAIDOC week and came days after an anonymous letter was sent to the Ballarat and District Aboriginal Co-operative taking aim at the organisation's chief executive Karen Heap for publicly condemning the City of Ballarat's controversial decision to drop Mullawallah as the name for the city's newest suburb.
It also attacked the wider Aboriginal community for continually "inflicting" its culture on Ballarat.
“Multiculturalism at its core is about respect for the common humanity of all of us,” Mr Scott said.
“Racism is dehumanising other people and as a society we don’t tolerate that. It doesn’t matter where you were born, what race or religion you are fundamentally we are all human-beings and afforded equal right and should be treated with dignity.”
Mr Scott said to eradicate racism it was important for the wider community to stand with those who were subjected racism.
Mr Scott said the state government had strong laws in place against racial vilification and in this year’s budget had allocated $28 million to multicultural affairs.
He said part of the funding would be pumped into education programs to support multiculturalism.
During his visit, Mr Scott lead a forum with community leaders including the Ballarat Regional Multicultural Council, City of Ballarat and Centre for Multicultural Youth.
He said the purpose of his visit was show the government’s support to multiculturalism organisations in Ballarat and determine what demands there were for services in the growing sector.
“Often multiculturalism can be seen in a Melbourne-centric way,” Mr Scott said.
“But there are many great stories to be told about strong multicultural communities in regional Victoria."
Mr Scott, who is also the Victoria’s finance minster, visited Federation University’s agricultural site to discuss work safety with students coming into National Farm Safety Week.
