Canberra's diversity is one of our greatest strengths, and a dedicated Multicultural Centre would support multicultural communities to connect, celebrate and showcase their diverse cultural events.
For over ten years, community leaders have been calling on the ACT Government to deliver on their promise of a purpose-built Multicultural Centre. The broader Canberra community supports these calls. We've seen the federal government step in with millions in funding for such centres in other electorates, but once again the ACT has missed out.
We need the ACT and Federal Governments to commit to and fully fund a purpose-built multicultural centre.
The ACT Labor-Greens Governing coalition took a commitment to develop a purpose-built Multicultural Centre to the 2020 election, outlined in their Parliamentary and Governing Agreement. They planned to "construct a large new multicultural events venue at EPIC for cultural performances and available for hire for large private functions, such as weddings.
The ACT Government announced that they will instead refurbish the Fitzroy Pavilion at EPIC to host big community and multicultural events. The ACT opposition and the Canberra Multicultural Community Forum called this out as a broken election promise - the venue clearly does not meet the specific needs of the multicultural community.
Senator David Pocock met with multicultural community organisations who expressed their anger at this broken election commitment, saying that the Fitzroy Pavilion does not meet their needs due to difficulty in booking and lack of a commercial kitchen.
Senator David Pocock wrote to the Chief Minister expressing the concerns of the community about the Fitzroy Pavilion and seeking further consultation.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr responded outlining plans to complete renovations to the Fitzroy Pavilion in 2024 and referring to consultations that were held with 6 community organisations and 9 individual community members. The letter also referred to a new commitment for a broader community centre in Gungahlin.
The newly refurbished Fitzroy Pavilion opens. It does not have the facilities to cater for large community events, with only a small kiosk and no commercial kitchen - a key requirement clearly expressed by the community.
In the lead up to the Federal election, federal Labor pledged $106,000 to upgrade multicultural centres in Queanbeyan and Goulburn, $5 million for a regional multicultural centre in Illawarra and $4 million for a multicultural centre for South Dandenong. There were no such commitments for Canberra.
A Multicultural Centre for Canberra has fallen off the agenda of both the ACT and Federal Governments. It's time for the community to put it back on.
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