By Kirsty Ross
THE new president of the Westgate Migrant Resource Centre (WMRC) faces a turbulent term, with the future of the agency in doubt over federal changes to settlement services funding.
Former vice-president Dimitrious Avgoulis was promoted to the top role at the annual general meeting last Wednesday at the Maltese Association’s headquarters in Collins Ave, Altona.
More than 150 attended the meeting, where long-time former president and centre founder Joe Attard announced he would not contest a position on the committee of management because of family reasons.
“Despite all the ups and downs of the last years, the situation has been contained,” he said.
“And I am happy to announce to you today that, in the past 12 months, WRMC is stable in terms of staffing and achieved a lot in delivering services to the refugee migrants settling into the region.”
Peter Hunt, director of community services at Hobsons Bay City Council, acknowledged that while it had been a “fairly difficult” year for the agency, he expected the year ahead to be “equally challenging”.
Mr Hunt said the MRC would find out in May whether it would win the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA) tender for 2007-08 to provide settlement services to Hobsons Bay and Wyndham migrants.
“If they don’t secure the funding, and if you look at their financial accounts, 90 per cent of their funding comes from that source,” he said.
“So essentially, they would be out of the business of providing settlement services if they don’t win that tender.”
The Commonwealth Government changed the way it funds settlement services following a review in 2005.
The outcomes of the tender round will be known in May 2007, but main opposition comes from Footscray’s New Hope Foundation.
The aim of the settlement grant program is to pay for services that help newly arrived settlers to become self-reliant and participate equitably in Australian society as soon as possible after arrival.
Mr Hunt said he believed the federal changes aimed to reduce the number of operators and accountability in different regions.
“It’s easier for them in some ways; they’ve done the same thing in other program areas, too – like early intervention for kids,” he said.
He said if the MRC was unsuccessful, the new board would have to address its future and whether they could instead provide a service for ageing post-war migrants, rather than help migrants in Australia up to five years.
A Star investigation in August revealed the centre lost major federal funding this financial year, partly as a result of not satisfying Commonwealth standards.
A DIMA notice of default from June outlined several breaches by the MRC in performance and reporting.
According to minutes from the June meeting with the MRC’s committee of management, a DIMA representative in attendance outlined several centre “operational issues”, including staff not being available at the Werribee office on a number of occasions, inappropriate management of staff, and no answering machine messages with forwarding contact numbers in both offices, if unattended by staff.
In other committee of management reshuffles, Hobsons Bay councillor and former MRC secretary Bill Baarini did not renominate as secretary because of work commitments.
But he admitted the MRC needed to go through some change.
He said the allegations of corruption and mismanagement would need to be investigated in the normal course through proper channels.
“They will need strong people in these positions to bring about the change that is required to bring the organisation into the future,” Cr Baarini said.
“But in many ways it doesn’t surprise me that when the main source of funding is being taken away from the organisation that people are starting to hurt – as an organisation, as staff and as members.”
