Introduction by Croakey: Racism and discrimination are top concerns for multicultural Victorians, according to statewide consultations undertaken by the Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria (ECCV).
The next Victorian Government must make sustained investments in community-led approaches that prevent racism, support people who experience it and strengthen institutional responses, according to the Council’s Victorian State Election Platform.
It puts forward 14 recommendations for how the next State Government can strengthen multicultural organisations, boost culturally responsive services, eliminate racism and build a stronger, more inclusive Victoria.
As Victorians prepare to vote, the Council’s CEO, Farah Farouque, says political candidates and parties can choose the kind of debate they want to lead and the vision for Victoria they want to offer.
“The choice is between exploiting anxiety and encouraging suspicion of our neighbours or dealing with the Victoria that actually exists: diverse, interconnected and dependent on people of many backgrounds to keep our hospitals, care services, businesses and communities running.”
Farah Farouque writes:
She’s a doctor of South Asian background who lives and works in a town outside Melbourne. In her consulting room, her skills are in high demand. She belongs.
The patients are not concerned with her culture, ethnicity or religion. They want her professional diagnosis.
Outside the consulting room, however, this doctor finds the story is more fractured. While many welcome her into the regional community that she calls home, some other people see her as an outsider.
Yet here lies the great irony: where would our health and broader care systems be without the contributions of people from migrant backgrounds?
This doctor’s story, shared at a community forum, is just one of many such accounts that could be given by Australian health and care workers from migrant backgrounds.
Enter a hospital, aged care service or community health setting, and you will see the incredible diversity that underpins our health system. Doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and personal care workers who were born overseas or whose families migrated here.
Migration and multiculturalism are woven into the fabric of our health and care systems.
Those who seek political advantage by portraying migration and multiculturalism as a problem rarely acknowledge a basic reality: our cultural diversity is a pillar of contemporary Australia’s success story in so many sectors.
This powerful point is an anchor for the Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria’s election platform for the November poll in our state.
We also make the point that we need a health system that works equally well for everyone.
Many migrants arrive in Australia in relatively good health (although experiences do vary and refugees and humanitarian entrants face substantially greater health risks). These health advantages can, however, diminish over time.
Concerns about care
At Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria, migrant and refugee communities have spoken frankly to us about the complex health systems that provide limited access to culturally appropriate care, including interpreters.
These challenges are particularly clear in mental health. Apart from overcoming cultural stigma, people from multicultural communities can face additional barriers when seeking help. And too often, grassroots multicultural organisations trusted by communities are treated as short-term conduits rather than genuine partners in an inclusive health system.
Refugees and people seeking asylum may require ongoing support due to complex physical and mental health needs after experiences of displacement and trauma. Despite this, access to culturally responsive refugee health support remains fragmented in regional Victoria and Melbourne’s outer suburbs.
And as Victoria’s population ages, older members of multicultural communities, from post-war migrants to elders from newer communities, may experience social isolation, difficulty navigating health and aged care systems and other barriers to accessing support.
These are not niche issues. Half of Victorians were either born overseas or have a parent who was born overseas. ECCV’s 2026 Victorian State Election Platform, A Victoria for all of us, has a strong health and wellbeing dimension.
We want grassroots organisations working as long-term partners with mainstream mental health services, rather than being brought in simply to reach communities when needed.
We also want sustained investment in Victoria’s well-regarded Refugee Health Program, particularly in growth areas.
As our population ages, our proposed Multicultural Ageing initiative would provide place-based support in six local government areas, backed by a statewide Centre of Excellence.
Better recognising and credentialling bicultural workers would strengthen a workforce whose language skills, cultural knowledge and relationships already help people navigate health and other essential services. There is untapped potential to utilise bicultural workers, for example, in mental health.
Community-led responses to racism
Our platform recognises that some of the most important determinants of health sit outside the formal health system. And there is a shadow looming larger than ever: racism.
Racism and hate, in all forms, was the top concern raised during ECCV’s year-long conversations across Victoria and ranked highest in our survey of member organisations.
In 2024, 34 percent of Australians from non-English-speaking backgrounds reported experiencing discrimination because of their skin colour, ethnic origin or religion in the previous 12 months, compared with 17 percent of Australians overall.
Racism is not only a question of attitudes or belonging. It is squarely a health issue. Research has consistently linked racism with poorer mental and physical health, while VicHealth identifies anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress among its most common health impacts.
It also undermines belonging and participation: fundamental pillars of social cohesion. When racism affects someone’s opportunities in employment, education and housing, their experience of healthcare, or whether they feel safe and welcome in their community, the consequences can accumulate across a lifetime.
That is why our platform highlights community-led responses as part of a package of practical solutions to eliminate racism and hate, alongside measures to revitalise community language education, strengthen intergenerational relationships and invest in early intervention for multicultural young people.
Although these issues span different areas of government, each shapes the conditions in which people live, participate and stay well.
As we head towards the November election, it’s important to remember that calculated political rhetoric delivered at the National Press Club or other polished places have far reaching impact. When people from migrant backgrounds are characterised as a burden or threat, that rhetoric lingers and undermines the sense of belonging that keeps our grassroots communities strong.
We can have respectful public debates about migration numbers. But serious public policy requires more than provocative videos and simplistic slogans favoured by the likes of One Nation and their backers.
It requires understanding both the tremendous contribution multicultural communities make and the barriers that careful investment by government can address.
As Victorians prepare to vote, political candidates and parties can choose the kind of debate they want to lead and the vision for Victoria they want to offer.
The choice is between exploiting anxiety and encouraging suspicion of our neighbours or dealing with the Victoria that actually exists: diverse, interconnected and dependent on people of many backgrounds to keep our hospitals, care services, businesses and communities running.
The answer to the challenges facing a diverse Victoria is not to retreat from the fact of multiculturalism. It is to invest in making multiculturalism work even better and build belonging for all of us.
• Read ECCV’s 2026 Victorian State Election Platform here.
• Farah Farouque participated in a Croakey online roundtable this week examining the health impacts of rising far-right populism, and the health sector’s roles and responsibilities in responding to these challenges.
See Croakey’s archive of articles on populism
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