The Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland (ECCQ) appreciates the opportunity to participate in this consultation designed to ensure continued support for Australia’s Refugee and Humanitarian Program. ECCQ represents, promotes and advocates for the needs of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Australians. We have been representing the multicultural communities of Queensland – migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees – since 1976. Our core mandate is to give them a voice, maximize their capacity and, together, find solutions to critical issues facing their communities. Therefore, this submission does not intend to answer the specific questions as outlined in the discussion paper. Rather, ECCQ would like to contribute to the policy settings of forward-looking program years; that is, we wanted to provide insights and ideas for future program, with the focus on historic, current and anticipated future needs, including the adaptation to changing circumstances, based on the feedback from multicultural community leaders and the current literature.
