Recognition, Rights and Participation: Ethnic Minority Communities in Western Australia’s Multicultural Policy Framework and Local Government Plans

Autsama Wang

Although multiculturalism in Australia remains a foundational but contested policy framework, local government implementation of multicultural principles in Western Australia (WA) remains under-examined. This dissertation examines how ethnic minority communities are discursively constructed in Western Australian multicultural policy discourse, with particular attention to the WA Multicultural Policy Framework (WAMPF) and how local government agencies (LGAs) in Perth metropolitan areas interpret and re-articulate the state-level policy priorities in their multicultural-related policy texts. Informed by Taylor’s (1992, 1994) politics of the recognition, Kymlicka’s minority rights (1995, 2007), and civic Modood’s participation (2007, 2017), the study conducts a qualitative document analysis across five official policy texts: the WAMPF, the City of Stirling’s Multicultural Framework (MF) and Strategic Community Plan (SCP), and the SCPs of the City of Canning and the City of Gosnells. The findings demonstrate that WAMPF discursively frames ethnic minorities, referred to as culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) communities, as economic and cultural contributors, rights-entitled minorities, and potential co-designers of policy. However, reliance on the universalising civic language introduces ambivalence that risks diluting group-specific understandings of belonging. On the other hand, the interpretation of WAMPF priorities is inconsistent within the local government-level multicultural-related policy documents. The City of Stirling reveals the most institutionalised commitment through the formal MF, while the Cities of Canning and Gosnells exhibit significant policy silence, particularly in terms of cultural responsiveness and participatory power-sharing. This dissertation argues that while WAMPF institutionally recognises ethnic minority communities as rights-bearing participants, the absence of formal and responsive policy approaches to empower ethnic minority groups at the local level results in symbolic rather than substantive minority inclusion.

Recognition, Rights and Participation: Ethnic Minority Communities in Western Australia’s Multicultural Policy Framework and Local Government Plans

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