MELBOURNE, 11 September 2025: In a significant announcement Victoria’s Premier Jacinta Allan today announced the blueprint for a new statutory body – Multicultural Victoria – to be led by a Multicultural Coordinator General, and supported by two Deputies, with one from regional Victoria, plus a five-member advisory council of commissioners.
The new body will do what all the VMC did with new responsibilities like making security plans for communities affected by “serious and distressing events”, the Premier announced.
Other points include a ‘Social Cohesion Commitment’ for those applying for grants and a $5 million fund for multicultural communities. A note circulated at the media conference says, ” It is not designed to be a punitive instrument to set a statement. If a recipient fails this basic standard they could be required to rectify it, apologize, make internal changes, or even forego the grant.
The ‘Social Cohesion Commitment’ is being seen in the context of recent anti-immigration rallies, where the Indian migrants were demonised for swamping Australia, and the subsequent offensive comments by NT Liberal Senator Price saying Labor was encouraging Indian immigration because they voted for the Labor Party. The statement widely condemned has led to internal rumblings in the Liberal Party., with Senator Price refusing to apologize.
Commenting on the issue on a question by SAT, the Victorian Premier said, No one should use the Indian community for political point scoring. She said Indians in Victoria are welcome and supported:
The long awaited Victorian Multicultural Review, is a set of suggestions to redefine the Victorian Multicultural Commission (VMC), by George Lakakis, the longest-serving Chair of the Victorian Multicultural Commission (VMC), was today launched by Premier Jacinta Allan, also present was Multicultural Minister Ingrid Stitt, in a multicultural media conference at the Treasury Place.
Those seeking funding (grants), a Victorian Values Statement will be the base of decisions and , “It will say that everyone is free to be themselves, and everyone has the responsibility to reject extremism, racism and violence”
The Review has forty plus recommendations and the government has initially accepted about nine of them. The government is not obliged to accept all the suggestions but it looks a work in progress. Legislation will be passed to make the new changes.
Multicultural Minister, Ingrid Stitt, gives details about Multicultural Victoria and what the government intends to do:
