a multicultural History of Australia
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Period: From Assimilation to Multiculturalism »
Commentary on: Building ethnic coalitions »
Prof Andrew Jakubowicz.
Text Commentary
Joining forces...
Mid 1970s - Ethnic groups link up for a stronger voice in putting their case...
Soon after their arrival, immigrants began to form groups or organisations to provide mutual support, to find jobs, housing and their way around the Australian bureaucracy. Adelaide artist Andrew Hill depicts here a meeting of new immigrants - industrial workers and white collar - against a backdrop of one of the immigrant ships of the 1960s.
Australia's political system works through a pluralist framework of interest representation. This means that individuals form organisations to meet their common needs - it may be a football club, or a child-care group, or an association of farmers, or of mining companies, or people of a particular ethnic background interested in their cultural commonalities. Often these groups link up with other similar groups to form larger associations to advance their common interests in the community and with government. Government, among many other things, acts as an avenue to allocate social resources to particular interests. By the mid 1970s ethnic communities were taking their place as participants in this world of interest group politics, and one of the targets of their attention was the governmental process.
The process of setting up coalitions has never been easy, as the pressures within them move in two directions - the search for common interests on the one hand, and the desire to protect specific interests on the other. Yet the Ethnic Communities' Councils have developed and pursued agendas on a range of issues - these include ethnic community schools (establishment and securing government support), the extension of community languages into the secondary school system as matriculation subjects, the building of effective welfare services within communities and by government, the development of ethnic and multicultural broadcasting, the identification of the special needs of migrant women, the pursuit of racial vilification legislation, and the widening of the understanding of artistic practice in a multicultural society.
For governments, organised interest groups are very useful. They ensure that priorities have been argued out within the groups before they are presented to government. They offer a continuing point of contact and dialogue, and allow sustained research into issues and a collaboration in developing solutions to problems. The relationship between governments and interest groups can also be angry, conflictual and difficult. The political environment will affect how well these relationships work. Since the emergence of ethnic lobbies of various sorts in the 1970s, most governments have developed institutional ways of ensuring their involvement.
Some groups fear this amounts to co-option, as the lobby groups depend increasingly on government funds to run their operations, and may therefore feel constrained in criticising the hands that feed them. Other groups feel their involvement is more for show, and that they are unable to really influence government or shift the agendas in ways that they think are important. Still others operate in more informal ways and believe they have considerable influence where it counts.
Ethnic Communities' Councils operate in all Australian states and territories, and are "peak" bodies reflecting the interests of their organisational and individual membership. Victoria has the oldest ECC and NSW the largest. They have joined together to form the Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia (FECCA) based in Canberra.
Further reference:
Jupp, James (ed) Ethnic politics in Australia, Sydney, George Allen and Unwin, 1984.
Jupp, James (ed) The Australian People: an Encyclopedia of the Nation, Its People and their Origins, Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1988.
Martin, Jean The Migrant Presence: Australian responses, 1947-1977 - research report for the National Population Inquiry, Sydney, George Allen and Unwin, 1978.