From Tuesday October 18th I will achieve a status that I have seen very rarely since around 1996 or thereabouts. For one of the few years since that time I will not be on the board of Ethnic Communities Council of WA. I have decided that the organisation has had more than its pound of flesh from me and I am not seeking reelection. My decision is in no small part related to the fact that what I see from the present government is nothing more than lip service to any advocacy agency. In the CaLD area they are completely and utterly without any commitment to us and sadly I see no one who will bring the policy changes that Dr. Gallop did when he was Minister for Multicultural Interests. And without an effective opposition this will continue to be the case. So I am moving on from that date on and I look forward to getting a significant part of my life back. Of all the Ministers and Premiers I have dealt with the only two who understood Multicultural Issues have been Dr. Gallop and Margaret Quirk. Everyone else has been a dismal failure. I had hopes for Bob Kucera but he wasn't there long enough for me to form an opinion. Of the Executive Directors of the Office of Multicultural Interests, Dr Leela de Mel was the ONLY effective one. She had a far superior policy knowledge to anyone before or after her. Sadly she is now deceased. Ah well, I will look back one day and see many policy decisions that are still with us because of my advocacy. Chief among them has been the Racial Vilification provisions of the criminal Code that I spent three weeks in Parliament negotiating with both sides to get bipartisan support for the legislation. The work I did with convicted terrorist Jack Roche was also interesting. And Jack van Tongeren's decision to conduct a para military operation to kill me will not be forgotten! Jack till recently sent me Christmas cards from Victoria! And in more recent times the work I have done in the health system in relation to deaths and issues therein.
Maybe one day there is a book that will emerge with some of my stories. Wait and see.
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