Multicultural Policy and Practice

The UTS Institute for Public Policy and Governance (IPPG) partnered with the Korean Local Government Centre Sydney to develop a half day seminar for 15 local public officials from Korea. The local officials visiting IPPG in late June were from 15 Korean local governments.

The purpose of the seminar was to learn and research Australian multicultural policy practice and future plans. Members of the delegation were interested in exploring this topic as multicultural policy is just being developed in Korea to deal with the increasing foreign population over the past decade. They discussed the impact that multicultural policies have on local communities and the country as a whole, including ways in which policy can affect the demographics of an area and support or limit growth.

The seminar was a great opportunity for the Korean local public officials to hear another country's perspective on multicultural policy development and implementation.

Professor Roberta Ryan, Director of IPPG welcomed the delegation and guests. Ms Nohkyong Kim, Director General Korean Local Government Centre Sydney introduced the seminar.

Three speakers presented to the delegation on a range of topics: 

• Mr Ken Hong Board member NSW Multicultural Advisory Board spoke on Multicultural NSW and State Government policy
• Ms Turkan Aksoy Community Development Officer Canterbury Bankstown Council  and coordinator of the Local Government Multicultural Network spoke on government collaboration for Federal, States, Local council government.
• Ms Sun-Hae Kim Supervisor, MOSAIC Multi-Cultural Centre  Willoughby City Council provided a case study of the evolution of the Willoughby MOSAIC Multi-Cultural Centre.

The delegation was very interested in the ideas and practical examples that the speakers provided. The level of collaboration between state and local government was very encouraging.