More than 23 per cent of the Department of Human Services’ customers are from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
An understanding and appreciation of the rich diversity in multicultural Australia is instrumental in ensuring government support and services reach all Australians regardless of their background.
Minister for Human Services, the Hon Alan Tudge MP, recently launched the Multicultural Servicing Strategy 2016–19 at Parliament House.
The strategy provides a blueprint for the future of multicultural servicing, and aims to build staff skills and cultural competence by introducing new and improved employee support tools.
Jack Intziadis, from the Victorian Multicultural Team says the strategy has helped him and comes at a good time.
“This strategy is our manual to multicultural servicing,” he said.
“It outlines the work we’ll be doing to service diverse communities over the next 3 years and gives direction on how we’ll be supporting our multicultural customers.”
This includes providing translated factsheets, videos and audio products in a range of languages available on the department’s website.
Multicultural Service Officers like Nurjan Eser have already started to see the impact of the strategy.
“It’s an excellent resource tool that covers all elements of multiculturalism and social inclusion,” she said.
The strategy highlights how the department recruits employees from diverse backgrounds to increase multilingual capacity and cultural awareness to ensure our workforce reflects our highly diverse customer base.
General Manager of Indigenous, Regional and Intensive Services Bridget Brill emphasised the importance of the strategy on how the department works with our customers.
“The strategy is an extremely important document for all staff who service customers from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
“It gives a high level view of how we’ll continue to build on our service offer for these customers. It sets the strategic direction we’re taking to cater to the needs of multicultural Australians.”
More information
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