The Office of Mr Peter Ryan, NSW Police Commissioner will conduct a review of the recent appointments to the Police and Ethnic Communities Council (PECAC) and in particular the unsuccessful application by Fairfield Councillor Thang Ngo.

As reported in the Sun Herald (6 August & 3 September), Fairfield Councillor Thang Ngo’s omission, leaving no representative on this 12 member police advisory council was criticised by many ethnic community groups including the Vietnamese Community in Australia (VCA). This issue was also raised in Parliament by UNITY upper house member, Dr Peter Wong last Thursday.

The Vietnamese community is the fifth largest ethnic group in NSW with two in five people born in Vietnam living in the Fairfield local government area, which includes Cabramatta.

Cr Ngo is the only Vietnamese-speaking councillor in Fairfield.

"We all know there are glaring issues with policing in Cabramatta, for example, of the 140 police men and women in Cabramatta not one speaks Vietnamese or Chinese" said Cr Ngo.

"When the community rings the Police’s highly publicised Police Assistance Line (PAL), operator’s can not cope with people from non-English speaking background".

According to Cr Ngo, a recent police Crime Stoppers drugs hotline advertisement in the local paper, the Fairfield Advance (8 August) included a special "TTY" number for the hearing impaired but not the TIS (Translation and Interpreter Service) number.

If the NSW Police service will not accept nominations of someone from a Vietnamese background then it just isn’t serious about addressing ethnic policing issues. It seem to me that they just wants an ethnic advisory panel that rubber stamps, rather than one with members that make constructive suggestions and criticisms.

Cr Ngo believes the selection process was flawed and welcomes Mr Ryan’s recent announcement of the PECAC review.