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The Weekend Neos Kosmos : 17 March 2018
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NEWS 8 THE WEEKEND NEOS KOSMOS | SATURDAY 17 MARCH 2018 DIGITAL.NEOSKOSMOS.COM ‘It’s not enough to stamp a visa’ Kris Pavlidis sets out her priorities as chairperson of the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria, stressing the need to create employment opportunities and tackle systemic racism NIKOS FOTAKIS To say that Cr Kris Pavlidis has a lot on her plate at the moment would be an understatement. One of the most active and prominent members of the Greek Australian community, the mayor of City of Whittlesea is now balancing her mayoral role with that of chair of the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria. “It is a privilege, for me as a Greek Australian woman,” she says, not shying away from the immense task at hand. From the moment she stepped into the role, she identified a set of challenges that the ECCV is facing. As the peak body mediating between government and grassroot communities, the ECCV is focused on empowering multicultural Victoria, promoting change in public policy and growing the capacity of the various ethnic and multicultural organisations operating in Victoria at any given moment. “Our main priorities at the moment are employment, training, and educational opportunities,” she explains. This is why the ECCV is hosting a national conference this week on 17 and 18 May, titled ‘Workplace Revolution: Blueprints for a Diverse Tomorrow’ with more than 500 delegates and 80 speakers including representatives from eight regional and rural Ethnic Communities Councils, metro Melbourne, interstate, and overseas in an effort to ignite public discussion on the issues of unemployment and underemployment of Victorians from culturally diverse backgrounds. “We can lead on such issues,” she says. “People's ability to settle and integrate relies heavily on their ability to be gainfully employed,” she explains. “This has to be taken seriously. If the government is supporting welcoming immigrants and refugees, it's not enough to stamp a visa, we need to be rolling out programs. We need to identify the economic benefits that new and emerging communities bring to the state and work on it, maximise it, and create social enterprise opportunities,” she says. If employment for emerging migrant communities is the top priority for Cr Pavlidis, it is only the start. Her list continues with the need to bridge the gender and generational gap within migrant communities, address issues in aged care, work on intercultural relationships, reaching out to disadvantaged groups, and looking at the political environment to identify where systemic changes need to be implemented. In other words, there are still a lot of things to be done. “My focus as a chair is to say that we are a small organisation with a limited resource base; we can't be everything for everyone,” she explains. “But I'd like to take a proactive approach in addressing the issues and prioritising what comes to as rather than react to govern- ment policy.” But to her, the main challenge is for the ECCV to remain relevant in a continuously shifting environment. "We've got recent waves of migration, with people from different demographic profiles, who face different settlement issues; people who are refugees and asylum seekers whose needs are a lot more intense, despite their quantum being smaller.” And there is always the issue of systemic racism. “This is not a new phenomenon, it has been happening for years, towards Greeks and Italians, then against Vietnamese, Indians, now it's people from the Middle East and African countries.” Inevitably, this discussion leads to recent examples of the South Sudanese community being targeted by the federal government and the media, as being associated with youth gangs. “For me this is highly unacceptable, to see the federal government racially profiling and target- ing a group of people on the basis of their ethnic and cultural affiliations,” she says. “But it's not surprising. The government is in campaign mode.” The issue has been the focus of the ECCV, she says. “We're working very hard with the police and African organisations and with young people.” This is not as easy as it may seem, given that what people perceive as an 'African community' is actually comprised of people from 54 countries, many of which have different tribal separations within them. “This is not a homogenous group of people,” she says, noting that this is exactly one of the misconceptions and stereotypes that need to be addressed. “The ECCV aims to enable processes that challenge the perception and judgement that people carry, based on external traits – clothes, skin colour, how people practise their faith, or the food that they eat – and create opportunities to make connections based on the common value base that we share,” she says, stressing the need to move away from stereotypes and focus on things that unite us, such as the approach to family, respect towards elders and so on. This kind of insight comes from experience. “The ECCV has been very successful nipping potentially inflammatory social situations in the bud by talking to people, by being inclusive, and bringing them to the table.” Speaking of tables, there's also the one where the ECCV board of directors sit. “I'm implementing a kind of mentoring system, bringing a group of advocacy leaders and budding them up with the 14 members of the board, to spend time with them, go to meetings and conferences, shadow them and learn about policy. I like to think that this is our way to open the door and invite young people, ensuring succession. This is a way to stay relevant.” Historic Melbourne Greek precinct building sells for $10.15 million The three-storey corner block, better known as the home of International Cakes, in Melbourne’s Lonsdale Street Greek precinct has sold to a foreign investor A historic building in Melbourne's Lonsdale Street Greek precinct has been sold for a sum of $10.15 million. Built in 1891, the threestorey Victorian-era building on a corner block, has long been known as the site of one of the area's Greek institutions: International Cakes. The popular cake shop, which sells an assortment of sweet Greek delicacies, was started in 1970, and the founder, Bill Bitz, bought the building in a family partnership when it came up for sale in 1979, in an off-market sale for $300,000. The property has changed hands just twice in 50 years. The February sale was brokered by Savills Australia, with their CBD agent Nick Peden saying the strong sale result is, in large part, due to the limited number of properties located centrally on the property market. "As a result, there is significant pent-up demand, which is leading to strong sale results," he said, adding that he expects the sale to set the precedent for the rest of the year. The building was purchased by a foreign inves- tor based in China, for whom the location and long-term tenants appealed. It's not the first time the building has been put on the market however; in August 2016 it was up for sale with a price tag of $9.9 million and withdrawn. This time the property had over 100 expressions of interest, and received several offers. The home of International Cakes on Lonsdale Street, a historic three-storey building, has sold for over $10 million. PHOTO: BURGESS RAWSON
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