Review of Post Arrival Programs and Services to Migrants (1977 - 1978)

The review of Post Arrival Programs and Services to Migrants was established by Cabinet decision and announced by the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Malcolm Fraser, on August 31, 1977. Established in order to ensure that the changing needs of migrants were being met by available resources,the review was conducted under prime ministerial authority in order to circumvent some allegedly obstructionist senior bureaucrats in the Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs. The first meeting of the Review Group, which was chaired by Mr Frank Galbally, C.B.E, was held on 1 September 1977. The committee of review consulted widely, seeking submissions from individuals and organisations, government and non-government. Advice from migrant community groups was actively sought.

The report brought down by the review group, Migrant Services and Programs, was submitted to
the Prime Minister on 27 April 1978 and tabled by him on 30 May 1978. It was made available in Arabic, Dutch, English, German, Greek, Italian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese. In it, the Review Group came down with a total number of fifty-seven recommended improvements to
programs and services involving expenditure of about $50 million in such areas as initial settlement and education, especially the teaching of English, with emphasis placed on the role of ethnic communities themselves, and other levels of government, to encourage multiculturalism.

Of particular significance to migrant women was recommendation number 43, which stated 'the implementation of the general recommendations of the Report, which have been framed in recognition of the special problems of migrant women, should take particular account of their needs'.

Conducted at a time, according to the committee, when Australia was 'at a critical stage in the development of a cohesive, united, multicultural nation', the Galbally review of Post Arrival Programs and Services to Migrants marks an important development in the evolution of Australian official policy towards settlers from one of assimmilation to multiculturalism. Its pointed reference to the needs of women also marked a moment when ethnic and gender politics connected.

• Galbally Review

Related Corporate Bodies

• Australian Greek Welfare Society (1972 - )

  The Australian Greek Welfare Society assisted the 1977 Galbally Review of Post Arrival Programs and Services to Migrants

• Ethnic Childcare Development Unit (1980 - )

  The Ethnic Childcare Development Unit was established in the wake of the Galbally Review of Migrant Post-arrival Programs and Services.

• Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia

  FECCA was estavlished in the wake of the the recommendations of the Review of Post Arrival Programs and Services to Migrants.

• Interdepartmental Working Group Taskforce on Migrant Women (1977)

  The report of the Interdepartmental Working Group Taskfirce of Migrant Women was very important to ensuring that migrant women and their needs were given priority in the Galbally Review

Related People

• Merenda, Francesca (1924 - )

  Dame Francesca Merenda was a member of the committee of review that met to assess Post Arrival Prgrams and Servies to Migrants

Online Resources

• Galbally, Frank, 'Frank Galbally, Chairman of the Review of Post Arrival Programs and services for Migrants, discussing migrants settlement into Australias way of life, including rights.', in Making Multicultural Australia, This website uses the benefits of a multimedia approach to privde information about Australian multicultural communities, and Training; Information Services Branch of the Office of the Board of Studies NSW. Multicultural Programs Unit of the Department of Education, Office of the Board Of Studies New South Wales, June 2002, http://www.multiculturalaustralia.edu.au/library
  /library.php?mediaCode=vid&mode=Category&myOption=Interview. [ Details... ]

See also

• Lopez, Mark, The Origins of Multiculturalism in Australian Politics 1945-1975, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2000. [ Details... ]
• Sawer, Marian, 'Double Disadvantage: Migrant and Aboriginal Women', in Sisters in Suits: Women and Public Policy in Australia, Allen and Unwin, North Sydney, 1990, pp. 107-139. [ Details... ]