This event on Wednesday 29 July was made possible through the generous event sponsorship of Celina Yu, Global Business College of Australia/Edvantage Institute Australia, who made the closing remarks. Additionally, in a first for us, this event utilised remote simultaneous online translation and we thank Prof. Charles Qin OAM and Elaine Tien of Chin Communications for their expert work and for donating their time.
Federal Member of Parliament, Gladys Liu, opened the session by sharing her story of coming to Australia 35 years ago, 165 years after the first Chinese person to travel here during the 1800’s Gold Rush. She emphasised both the relative youth of our nation and the long-standing connection Australia has with China. Ms Liu reaffirmed messaging from the Federal Government that racism has no place in Australia and enlightened us on the work being undertaken by government to increase cultural understanding. She posed that as a way to help overcome racism, emphasis should be placed on viewing Chinese Australians, who are indeed our fellow citizens, as separate from the Chinese Government and its policies.
Lord Mayor Sally Capp highlighted the multicultural makeup of the City of Melbourne which, in her words is “a symbol of our success”.
Ms Capp went into detail about initiatives from the City of Melbourne to build and maintain a welcoming, multicultural and multifaith socially harmonious city, including more corporation and coordination with the business community than ever before. Sally also spoke of the long-standing sister city relationship between Tianjin and Melbourne – now in its 40th year – and the large international student community that the City of Melbourne and Councillor, Philip Le Liu, oversees in his role involving International Engagement, Government & Politics and Strategy.
Both speakers delivered their anti-racism messaging from a personal and professional level. With this event drawing in many members from the Australia-China community, ACBC members and friends, we hope the discussion contributes towards refocussing the dialogue with the strong message that racism has absolutely no place in our society. Business to business begins with person to person and we can all play our part to call out racism when it happens.
If you have experienced racism, we encourage you to report the behaviour and take action through the appropriate channels outlined below:
The Human Rights Commission 人权委员会 or Victoria Police 维多利亚警察局
If you would like to stay up to date with the work Gladys Liu and Sally Capp do, please follow them on LinkedIn – Gladys Liu | Sally Capp
