a multicultural History of Australia

Making multicultural Australia

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Commentary on: Jupp Multicultural Program Review, 1986 »

Prof Andrew Jakubowicz.

Text Commentary

Don't settle for less than social justice

1986 - A new report focuses on access and equity in migrant services

In 1986 Dr James Jupp, a political scientist at the Australian National University, was appointed to chair the Review of Migrant and Multicultural Programs and Services (known as ROMAMPAS). The review that he and his committee members (pictured here in Canberra) undertook, fulfilled a recommendation made three years earlier by the AIMA evaluation of the Galbally Report.

The Jupp review moved the multicultural debate to another level because, in the words of academic Professor Jerzy Zubrzycki it shifted the emphasis from "lifestyle to life chances". It identified four key principles which it applied to all Australians:

  • equal opportunity to participate in the economic, social and political life of the nation;
  • equitable access to and an equitable share of government-managed resources;
  • the opportunity to participate in and influence government policies, programs and services; and
  • the right to enjoy and use one’s own culture, religion and language while respecting the rights of others to enjoy and use other forms.

Where the Jupp review was significantly different from its predecessors was in its definition of multiculturalism as "equitable partnership". It recognised that the labour market was the "major determinant of whether certain persons or groups will be disadvantaged" and argued for the removal of structural inequalities. It also took the line, as Jupp himself says, that "settlement can be a lifelong process" and there could therefore be no fixed term for settlement services. Jupp acknowledges that the review may have been intended to serve a "hidden agenda" of the bureaucrats in the Immigration Department who wanted to move away from the provision of welfare services. But he believes the review served to underscore the access and equity issues which are now accepted as underpinning multicultural philosophy.

The Jupp committee made 32 recommendations mainly concerned with improvement to existing services such as better translation facilities, the recruitment of bilingual staff, and establishing mechanisms to enable migrant skills and qualifications to be assessed prior to arrival. It also recommended the establishment of an Office of Ethnic Affairs within the Immigration Department to co-ordinate and monitor progress towards achieving equitable participation by immigrants in Australian life. Prime Minister Bob Hawke took up this suggestion but decided to place the renamed Office of Multicultural Affairs within the Prime Minister’s Department, which Jupp later agreed was a more useful arrangement. The ethnic lobby groups such as FECCA had been pressing for this action since the calamitous collapse of services (including the abolition of AIMA) in 1986.

Further reference:
Castles, Stephen (et al) Mistaken identity: multiculturalism and the demise of nationalism in Australia, 3rd ed, Sydney, Pluto Press, 1992.

Jupp, James (ed) The Australian People: an Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People and their Origins, Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1988.

Lack, John and Templeton, Jacqueline Bold experiment: a documentary history of Australian immigration since 1945, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1995.

Theophanous, Andrew Understanding Multiculturalism and Australian Identity, Melbourne, Elikia Books, 1995.