Laksiri Jayasuriya.
Professor Jayasuriya, dicusses the multicultural movement.
1993
17 July 2002
Interview for Making Multicultural Australia, 1993.
mov (Quicktime);
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35 secs
PROFESSOR LAKSIRI JAYASURIYA
Member, Immigration Advisory Council, 1972-75
We started to really begin to challenge the orthodoxy of assimilationist policies because of the hardships, the misery experienced by the industrial canon fodder that was brought into this country. There was a real militancy, there was a real struggle. The origins of the multicultural movement go back to the Ethnic Rights Movement, groups like FILEF, which were in the forefront, the Broadmeadows strikes, Bonegilla strikes. Those were what really nurtured the crisis.
CONTINUATION OF INTERVIEW AS TEXT
This is the classic work of sociologist Jean Martin who pointed out the extent of inequality endorsed by the Poverty Commission Report of (Ronald) Henderson. And all the responses, especially in the reformist Whitlam Government, were directed onto these issues.
Interview for Making Multicultural Australia, 1993.
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