I would like to inquire as to when the Maltese government acknowledged that there are 50,000 first generation Maltese in Australia. These people all need to be informed appropriately about issues concerning us, either immediately or in the future.
We understand the difficulty in contacting us individually – relating both to cost and time. However, in Australia we have set up community councils, welfare councils and, for smaller communities, associations.
We have been campaigning with the Maltese government for a long time, both personally and as a group as well as verbally and in the written form. These organisations need to be recognised and when there are changes they should be informed properly.
It would be helpful if the groups were given enough lead time to deal with new policies relating to them. In this way, these not only could comprehend the information provided but could also pass it on to their community.
The Maltese government has a representative in each state, starting with the high commissioner and followed by a consul general, consuls and honorary consuls. A session time to explain the new policy in “plain language” to a group representative would be helpful.
Some examples of the times we were not informed beforehand are:
When dual citizenship was introduced;
When dual citizenship was amended in 2000;
When Malta joined the EU – particularly, the manner it was going to affect us and our siblings, if any.
Which leads to the amendments to the Australian/Maltese Treaty on pensions/disability pensions.
On Thursday 24 February, I, as President of the Maltese Australian Association of Canberra and Queanbeyan Inc., received an e-mail from the ACT office of Multicultural Affairs, requesting me to give some feedback on the matter.
Although I was aware of the signing of the agreement in June 2004 and February 2005, I had no other knowledge of the matter. I was informed by the ACT government that I should put in writing any problems regarding the agreement by the following day.
I then contacted the office of the High Commission to see if there would be any adverse issues affecting our community. I was requested to put this query in writing even though I had less than 24 hours to answer back.
On Friday, the ACT government gave me an extension until Monday as well as informing me as to where the information I had requested could be found. (As this information was on a website – it would have been easy enough to have been informed about it previously).
During this time, I was in contact with the other state groups – it appeared, we were all in the same position. It was impossible to try and meet all the community to discuss these issues.
If we had been given some lead time by the Maltese government we may have been able to give some feedback on issues which were going to affect us all.
Another agreement was signed between the Maltese and Australian governments on our behalf, without the public being informed as to what was actually happening.
I would, however, like to show my gratitude to the office of Multicultural Affairs of the ACT, for the interest they continually show in our community.
Alfred Flask
President of the
Maltese Australian Association of Canberra and Queanbeyan Inc.
Australia