Cultural Diversity News

DCA Report on cultural diversity at the "big end" of town.

Tuesday, 06 December 2011 17:58

How well are Australian organisations ‘capitalising on culture’ in the senior ranks, asks the Diversity Council of Australia? “Today, Australians come from more than 200 countries, identify with more than 270 ancestries and speak almost 400 languages including 164 Indigenous languages. If Australian organisations are to leverage fully the business opportunities of culturally diverse local, regional and global markets, they need to genuinely value cultural diversity and the inter-cultural capabilities this can bring, and tap into Australia’s culturally diverse talent pool. Our research findings underscore the need for employers to build understanding and engagement around cultural diversity,” said Nareen Young, DCA CEO.

Read more: DCA Report on cultural diversity at the "big end" of town.

The politics of asylum

Thursday, 10 November 2011 10:41

The Labor Party’s inability to secure federal opposition support for its controversial ‘offshore processing’ policy has divided Australians on how best to receive those who seek asylum. With the Liberal Party claiming asylum seekers are linked to social unrest, UTS Professor of Social Economics Jock Collins examines how our country’s leaders are handling the hysteria.

The Gillard Government has been forced, against its will, to abandon the policy of offshore processing of asylum seekers who arrive on Australian shores by boat. This is not because the Australian Government has unearthed concealed humanitarian warmth to the plight of asylum seekers. Its policy of the mandatory detention of ‘boat people’, introduced by the Keating Labor Government, remains intact. Rather, Abbott’s political opportunism has prevented him supporting a policy that he actually believes in.

Full article at UTS:NEWSROOM

Award-winning SBS journalist publishes new book Overboard

Thursday, 03 November 2011 10:59

Walkley award winning SBS Arabic journalist Ghassan Nakhoul has published a new book drawing on ten years of research into the lives of refugees arriving in Australia by boat. The book, titled Overboard and independently published by Dar Meera in Sydney, was launched in September by former Defence Force Chief, Admiral Chris Barrie.  It is an important piece of investigative journalism that examines the politics of seeking asylum under Australia's current refugee policy. Nakhoul won a Walkley Award in 2002 for his radio report ‘The Five Mysteries of SIEV X’. In Overboard, Nakhoul revisits that tragedy and returns to the many unanswered questions that make this an event shrouded in mystery even today.
More info and to order a copy online go to http://www.darmeera.com/

SBS Arabic Radio report on the Freedom from Persecution Conference hosted by CCS

Thursday, 03 November 2011 10:55

On 7 October 2011, the UTS Centre for Cosmopolitan Civil Societies hosted the conference ‘Freedom from Persecution’ which coincided with the exhibition ‘Unsafe Haven’ about Hazaras in Afghanistan by Sydney based photographer and freelance writer Abdul Karim Hekmat. The conference was organised by Professor James Goodman, Director at CCS, and Dr Wahid Razi from UTS. SBS Arabic journalist Ghassan Nakhoul was there to cover the event and produced a radio report on the conference. The report is in Arabic but includes voice grabs in English from conference participants including Dr Wahid Razi from UTS, artist Abdul Karim Hekmat, Professor William Maley from ANU, Dr Anne McNevin from RMIT, and Dr Omid Tofighian and Dr Nour Dados, both from the University of Sydney.

Read more/listen:http://tunein.com/search/?query=taliban+era