(Transcript from World News Radio)
With around 73,000 new migrants added to the population of New South Wales in 2014, many will be voting for the first time in Australia in the state election on March 28.
Peggy Giakoumelos reports on how multiculturalism and other issues affecting migrants are being handled in this election.
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NSW remains a destination for many new migrants, with many arriving from India and China in recent years.
Despite the continuing flow of new migrants entering the state, Professor of Sociology at the University of Technology in Sydney, Andrew Jakubowicz says there's been little debate in this election about multicultural issues.
"Even with the intergenerational report with significant social challenges in almost every part of the whole of life cycle that people face, multicultural issues are not on the agenda and I think that's primarily because the Labor Party is absolutely quiet on it. They apparently have no policy that one can make any sense of, because the Labor Party is only talking about polls and wires, and I don't think they're talking about people from Poland, the issues really aren't getting debated. And the Greens who have quite an elaborate policy in this area, really aren't taking it up to the government either. Hence there is no multicultural debate at this election at least on the surface."
As for the Liberal Party, Professor Jakubowicz says it seems to be focussing on what he calls inclusivity in its approach to multicultural issues.
"In the conversations that I have had with the Minister, the aim of the multicultural policy is to be inclusive and to have everyone sign up to core Australian values. And the idea is that's been around for a long time is that multiculturalism is for all Australians is really at the heart of what they're talking about but they make the Australian part for all Australians louder than the multiculturalism part."
Peter Doukas is the Chairman of the Ethnic Communities Council of NSW.
He also believes that neither of the major parties have given multiculturalism much attention during this election.
Mr Doukas believes a number of key areas need to be addressed by whichever party wins the election.
"The issues vary the integration of new and emerging communities is something that is very important to us, both the ECC and our member communities and how they are integrated into our wider NSW society and how particularly the young people can be made to feel Australian I think more resources need to be allocated to that. That's pretty much the work that the ECC does."
Meanwhile, the Australia China Business Council says one of the election's hottest issues, the debate over the possible privatisation of the NSW electricity network, has taken on racist overtones.
The Council says a union campaign targeting the possible takeover of the NSW electricity network by a Chinese-owned company, is painting a negative picture of the Chinese community.
The Council's Jim Harrowell.
"Well I think it does have a racist touch, no doubt about it. And I think it makes the whole thing seem more scary when what the government is proposing is to lease some assets on a long-term basis as I understand for the best price possible. It might not ultimately be a Chinese investor but we would certainly like to have them as part of the group that are bidding for them because they have capital. They want to invest in Australia and we also want to encourage our relationship with China. So I think we should welcome it with open arms and we should really try and avoid some of those scare campaigns. It's shades of some former very prominent politicians who used to scare people about foreigners and I think we need to move on."
Adam Kerslake is a spokesman for Stop The Sell Off Campaign which includes a number of unions opposed to the sell off of the NSW electricity network.
He says the campaign by the group isn't racist - it's simply about keeping Australian public assets in Australian hands.
"We really push back on that. We deal with people of all different races. We deal completely without any discrimination at all. We're not talking about discrimination here, we're talking about the government's plans. If they're proposing to sell our electricity network off to a foreign government, then the people have a right to know. That's not racist, that's a simple question that requires a simple answer and we haven't got a simple answer."
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