Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, , 9:33:52 to 9:40:27
Senator Shoebridge questions the Special Envoy regarding which 35 of the 54 recommendations in his report were accepted by the government, highlighting the lack of an itemized public list.
Topics: Grants administration, Social cohesion
Speakers: Senator David Shoebridge, Aftab Malik, Senator Jana Stewart, Unknown Speaker
Thank you, Mr. Malik. We'll proceed to questions and begin with Senator Shoebridge.
Thanks very much, and thanks, Ms. Malik, for your um for the work you've been doing and for your attendance today and for working with us to overcome the technical difficulties. I appreciate that as well. Um I'm going to credit the chair and the secretary for doing the informal IT as well. Malik, when you presented your um your report on what was required to combat Islamophobia to the government. Um I think it was at the end of last year, wasn't it? Was that when you presented? September. And then 10 months later the government provided a response and said that they supported 35 of the 54 recommendations. Is that what you would hold?
Yep.
Yep. Um can you tell the committee which of the 35 recommendations were supported?
They were not detailed as an item. They covered the four areas that I spoke about in my uh recommendations of how Islamophobia should be addressed, looking at social cohesion, um, supporting um people who are talking, people who speak about Islamophobia should be held account. There needs to be investment in community as well as educational practices. So these are the areas that the government responded to, the four areas that I discussed that were the center of my report.
Sorry, so are you saying that sitting there now you don't know which of the recommendations the government has supported and which of them they have rejected?
Um they haven't rejected any of my recommendations. The recommendations that the government have taken are 35 in total. Um, if you exclude um the work that the government is currently doing at my office, it brings it down to 21. And those 21 new initiatives and responses to my recommendations for within those four areas. There's specific things done in around this topic education task force, for example, there's things that are done around development of resources for parliamentarians. Uh, there's also things done in with multicultural grants, and then there's also initiative done with the Australian Federal Police Committee and liaison team.
Sorry, so the government said they accepted 35 of the recommendations. Is that right? That's been their public communication. Is that what they've told you?
That's correct.
Well, I'm asking, I think the most obvious question in relation to your report. Which of the recommendations of the 54 recommendations which have been supported, which are those 35 recommendations? And are you telling us seriously you don't know?
Um, it's not a case that I don't know, is how I think the government has responded to my recommendations. So rather than going through each individual of the ticket item, they categorize them into categories that I spoke of, as I mentioned those categories beforehand.
Well, well, do you or do you not know the 35 recommendations that the government has supported?
Um I do know in the four categories in the which the government has responded to, yes, I know those categories.
Mr. Malik, it's I'm not asking about the categories. I'm asking about your report. You had 54 recommendations. The government has said that it supports 35 of them. And and I please don't respond by talking about categories. Um which are those 35 recommendations? What are the 35 recommendations the government has accepted? And if you don't know, just simply tell us you don't know.
Yeah. I uh I have to respond with categories because as I said, the government responded mimicking what I had mentioned about the four categories, and in those four categories, uh, there are a number of initiatives that the government has responded to, which I'm working with, and that's as best as I can respond to you, Senator.
Well, Mr. Malik, I think I am asking the most straightforward question. You wrote a report with 54 recommendations. The government has told you and told the public that it supports 35 of them. Um and from what I understand this exchange, you're unable to tell this committee which of those which are those 35 recommendations. Because you have an obligation to assist this committee, and if you know the answer to tell us. And what I'm getting from this is you're unable to tell us which are those 35 recommendations. Am I wrong in that?
Um, the government didn't respond to me with 54 explicit recommendations. They responded to me in the categories that I chose to summarize my recommendations. So that is as best as I can answer the question. Well, so it was not a list. Yet there was not a list of, there was not a list of items to which specifically the government responded to. Um, they responded to in the categories that I had spoken about my own report.
So just a really straightforward answer to this. The government has said that accepts 35 of the 54 recommendations. But sitting there now, you cannot tell this committee what those 35 recommendations are. Because if your answer is contrary to that, I would like you now to immediately tell me which those 35 recommendations are.
Yeah. Yeah, I cannot answer the question given the way the government responded to my report.
So how do you know which of your 54 recommendations? How do you know the 19 that haven't been accepted? How do you know?
Uh, we're working, yeah. So we're working through them right now. So I'm working with and through the Office of Multicultural Affairs, going through those um the initiatives that I mentioned to you, uh, of which includes the Sonic Education. Task force that grants the development uh the training uh so this is at the moment that how we are processing the work the response by the government through the Office of Multicultural Affairs, but I have not a specific list of uh specific uh items for my response. I don't have that.
Minister, can you provide on notice which are the 35 of the 54 recommendations the government has accepted?