More than a hundred organisations and individuals from across Australia are today calling for a new national policy on multiculturalism.
It is a concept that once featured strongly in government policy formulations and ministerial titles but that has now lapsed.
Bringing together sporting groups, charities, unions, and other diverse bodies, the campaign to revive multiculturalism is being led by the Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia, the peak national body for all multicultural Australians.
FECCA chairman Pino Migliorino is pushing the government to adopt a national multicultural policy, because the last one expired four years ago and there has been a policy vacuum ever since.
"What we need is models that accommodate diversity so we give people what they need so they feel welcome, that they feel they can participate and they feel that they can belong. Once we do that, we are generating and creating real Australians for the long term," he told SBS.
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Mr Migliorino says Australia has a lot to thank multiculturalism for and that needs to be celebrated.
"The reality is that multicultural policy has created the situation in which many migrants have come here and been able to settle well, benefit, contribute, grow their kids, grow their grandkids and the policy structure is absolutely imperative," he told SBS.
"So we need the government to restate and redevelop a policy of multiculturalism and we are more than happy to help them with it".
The founder of African Women Australia Inc, Juliana Nkrumah, trains and supports African women in Australia to represent themselves, their families and their communities.
She says cultural diversity is the bedrock of Australia's harmonious society.
"We need to put it out in the mainstream. It should be the policy that guards our society and one that we can always run to in order to be," she told SBS.
"It's about accessing equity -- for goodness sake where would you be in a world where one group doesn't claim the place for themselves? But we all belong to it and work it together".
FECCA says a multicultural policy is not just about vulnerability, population growth, migration numbers and economic need.
Mr Migliorino says it's about managing relationships between communities and people in Australia to achieve harmony, and maximise the quality of life of all Australians.
He says it recognises that human beings are more than mere economic resources, and that culture is integral to their well-being.
However, he says politicians seem to have lost sight of that.
"Both of the major political parties at the federal level perceive that there is electoral advantage in terms of not supporting multiculturalism and today is a very, very strong message to both sides that we believe it is so important it is something we are willing to fight for".
Former Liberal leader John Hewson agrees the last federal election campaign sent out the wrong messages.
"We reached sort of a low ebb -- a race to the bottom -- to see who could block immigration the most, who could stop more boats more than the other side, you know that was pretty pathetic stuff from the point of view of what's in our national interest," he told SBS.
"It sent all the wrong sort of signals out to the various ethnic communities in Australia and to those beyond Australia who might be thinking of coming here, and I think that is a pity".
Ms Nkrumah, who has been in Australia for more than two decades, is tired of people presuming she is from the latest intake of African refugees because of her blackness.
She says a national multicultural policy would address that.
"I so strongly hope the government, especially our federal government will wake up to this and take this seriously and move on from this. It's about the future, the sort of future that my children can be confident living in".
