Sky News News Day with Laura Jayes
E&OE
Laura Jayes:
With the new Prime Minister there come new policies and new strategies. Already the Turnbull government is signalling a new strategy when it comes to community engagement with Muslim and Islamic communities. There’s a report in today’s newspapers that security agencies and intelligence agencies are concerned about the relationship that Government has with this community saying that it is at its lowest ebb in a very long time. I want to bring in now the Assistant Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells. Concetta thanks so much for joining us again on Sky News. We’ve had long conversations about this over a number of months. You have 30 years’ experience in this space but it seems to me that you’ve signalled through your comments in the Australian today, a move from this not being a national security issue but a social issue.
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
Look, I think it’s really important to look at this from two different perspectives. Prime Minister Abbott, when he made me Parliamentary Secretary to the Attorney-General, recognised that there was an overlap between the work that was being done in the Department of Social Services and in the Attorney-General’s Department. So my engagement in Social Services is about social cohesion, multicultural affairs and settlement issues. In the Attorney-General’s it’s about community engagement in relation to counter violent extremism. As a consequence of that I am building on my many years of engagement in the social policy area and in particular this space as my relationship with many, many people in the Muslim community goes back 20 years. So building on all of that, I wrote to all Muslim organisations around Australia with the offer to go and visit them. That’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve virtually been going door to door meeting them at their mosques, their organisations, their offices and basically getting it directly.
Laura Jayes:
And what is that unfiltered message that you’ve got? What is that message coming from these communities to you?
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
The message is that they are feeling marginalised. They are feeling that every single one of them is responsible for actions of young people who are being led astray. This is not to say that those young people travelling overseas and wanting to travel overseas, there aren’t people there who have criminal intent. That is the case. But amongst that group there are young people, who for some reason or other have become disengaged, have become disenchanted. The manifestation of that disengagement is what I call ‘the new way to rebel’. I think what we now to look at is those reasons why …
Laura Jayes:
What do you think the reasons are, just before we move on?
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
Young people go off the rails for all sorts of reasons Laura. As the former chair of Father Chris Riley’s Youth off the Streets I’ve seen first-hand what they can be. They can have problems at home, they may be being bullied, there are a number of reasons why they are feeling disengaged. Add on to that, potential cultural overlays and you do have a very complex problem and you do have to look at this in all its complexities. So my point is, instead of looking at it just as a national security issue, let’s go back and look at it from that social perspective. What are the reasons for these young people feeling that elements of disengagement and how can we work with those communities at risk. When I mean work with, I don’t mean engaging by just having a meeting with him. Let’s actually look at the levers that are available to us as Government and what are the things we can do with them to address these issues. One of the important things that came out of the CVE Summit that we had here was the importance of community engagement.
Laura Jayes:
Can I bring that up as well. That happened, and it was convened while Prime Minister Tony Abbott was still in the leadership. Look I was at that CVE Summit and I don’t think there was one Muslim community leader there. Is that just one example of the mistakes that was made?
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
There were some there, but I go back to the point that when you engage with someone you can deliver messages, you can say ‘this is our policy’ but it’s different to sitting down and saying ‘ok we have a problem, how are we going to work through this problem?’ What are the practical things that we need to do together with those communities to address those issues? That’s been part of my reason for going out there, to sit with them one on one, yes to hear the concerns but also to see what they’re doing, because some of them are doing things, but also to get from them ideas. In fairness to Prime Minister Abbot,t he did task me with this so I hope that now I will be reporting to Prime Minister Turnbull and certainly I will be giving him the benefit of my engagement, the work that I have done and my unfiltered advice.
Laura Jayes:
With that unfiltered advice and I appreciate that one on one engagement that you will continue to do, but the macro message is also very powerful. There were messages and comments from Tony Abbott a couple of months ago where he commented on the Grand Mufti, saying that he wants to hear more from the Grand Mufti and I don’t want to verbal Tony Abbott but he said ‘I want him to mean it as well.’ I know that didn’t go down well in the Muslim community so does there need to be a change at that macro level, a change in the overall message coming from this Prime Minister and this Government?
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
Laura, language is very important and this is something I have known for many, many years but so is frank and open dialogue that leads to conclusions. The important thing that we as a Government now need to do is sit down and build on that trust. This is a trust that I have had for many, many years. It’s understanding the cultural overlays, understanding the complexities of our Muslim communities here in Australia …
Laura Jayes:
So what’s one thing you might change going forward?
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
Well I think it’s important to change the language, but it’s also important how we dialogue. When we are developing responses, it’s important that we work with them to develop those responses.
Laura Jayes:
Concetta Fierravanti-Wells as always it is a pleasure to have you on the program. We’ll get you back in in a couple of months to talk about what has changed and whether there has been an improvement in that engagement. We’ll speak to some community leaders as well. Thank you.
Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
Thanks.
[Ends]