Most people call me P and I’m the CEO of the Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia and it is my great pleasure to be your MC this morning.
The honorable Anthony Albanese, MP, Prime Minister of Australia, welcome. The Honorable Dr. Anne Aly, MP and Sister and Minister for Small Business, Minister for International Development and Minister for Multicultural Affairs. Senator David PCO, Senator for the ACT.
Our chair, members of parliament and senators, Miss Chiaka Barry, MLA, Mayors and Councilors that are here today, our Chair, Peter Doukas, OAM, and members of the FECCA board, FECCA life members, Miss Monica Wegner from CommBank, thank you. And leaders of our member councils, distinguished guests, friends, and family.
It is my pleasure to welcome you today over the next few days. It’s going to be a big couple of days and I’m absolutely delighted to be here.
So, I’m a migrant to Australia. I was born in Zambia. I’m of Indian heritage and I married a first generation Italian from Tasmania. Who would have thought?
And when I first arrived in Brisbane, yes, I’m a Queenslander, I did not speak a word of English. My parents came because they saw a bright future and they were desperate for my brother and I to fit in. They were of a generation that took risks.
My mother sold Avon, worked for the United Nations, and then opened the very first Indian restaurant in Toowoomba. My father helped to establish key government agencies on behalf of Australia in Papua New Guinea as it moved toward independence. My brother served for years in the Army Reserve.
And I, as a woman of color, have navigated systems that were not designed with people like me in mind. I have represented the Australian Government overseas and worked to secure Australia’s sovereign cyber capability. And today, I stand in Australia’s Parliament House as FECCA’s CEO.
And yet, like many of you in this room, I have found myself asking today, why do I feel that I need to justify who I am and what I have contributed to this country? Do I belong here? What is my identity? And that is where the national conversation has brought us.
In planning this conference, three conventions kept me focused.
Number one, belonging. It must be real. Number two, racism. It needs to be called out. And number three, that our sector, this sector needs to be united.
So, first, belonging must be real. Belonging is not a token acknowledgement. It is not granted at a citizen citizenship ceremony and quietly withdrawn when the politics turn.
It means having a say, and it rests on what holds us together as modern Australians. Shared values, a commitment to democracy and a fair go and a shared identity that has always been bigger than any single origin story.
FECCA chose Parliament House because decisions made here shape our lives and the very communities, these communities in the room today know what those decisions mean in practice.
Second, racism and exclusion must be called out. We must confront what shuts people out. And if we don’t call out racism, especially when it is valid as a debate with numbers.
When people say migrants are the problem, they must remember who build our homes, care for our elderly, and grow our food. And when anyone suggests that some Australians are more Australian than others, well, we must tell them plainly that belonging is not graded by birth place, accent, or skin color.
We can hold two things to be true at once. We can debate migration policy without dismantling multiculturalism.
We can want a well planned migration program grounded in evidence and still reject the idea that migrants are to blame. What we must avoid is binary thinking that is blind to detail and deaf to nuance.
So, let me be clear. Migrants did not create a housing crisis that has been decades in the making.
Migrants and their skills are part of how we build our way out of it. Migrants are not why the weekly shop costs more. Many work on our farms, in our factories, on our supply chains, and they keep food on our shelves.
Our communities feel the same pressures as every other Australian. And migrants are part of the solution. Around one in three small businesses in Australia is run by a migrant, and together they employ over 1.4 million people.
Ask anyone in regional Australia whether migrants matter to the community and you’ll hear a resounding, loud yes.
Third, a united sector with FECCA setting the agenda alongside you. This takes courage and I promise that FECCA will work with you to set priorities to shape our advocacy and press for change. And your expertise must guide us. And unity means working through our differences, agreeing on what we ask for, and backing each other when it really counts.
And our five priorities at FECCA give that work direction. We focus on health equity, gender equity, economic prosperity, social inclusion, and multicultural sector leadership.
And over these two days, please challenge us. Challenge each other. Tell us and the representatives in this house what needs to change. Build partnerships. We can’t do it by ourselves.
And before you leave on Friday, decide what action you will take, with whom, and by when.
Belonging, racism, sector unity. That is how we give meaning to the conference’s theme. Many stories, one future.
So, thank you. Thank you once again to our amazing conference sponsors, to the Commonwealth Bank, to SBS and NITV, our official media partner, who hosted last night’s welcome reception, by the way, which was fantastic. And thank you to SSI who will be our gala dinner host.
