Monday 3 April 2000

Media Release

NSW Police can learn from Victoria

The latest recruitment drive by Victorian Police for ethnic recruits have been warmly welcomed by the ethnic communities in NSW.

The only Councillor from a Vietnamese background in Fairfield, Thang Ngo has called on the Police Commissioner to immediately implement a similar recruitment drive in NSW.

Fairfield is the most multicultural local government area in Australia.

Cr Thang Ngo has often criticised NSW Police for being unrepresentative of the communities they are policing.

"In Cabramatta around 6 in 10 residents are Asian-born yet there is not one Police officer from an Asian background" said Cr Ngo.

According to the last Census, two in five Vietnamese-born residents in Cabramatta speak English poorly or not at all".

Communication is obviously a problem and one of the solutions is obviously to recruit Police from different cultural backgrounds according to Cr Ngo.

"At the moment there are more disabled Police than those from non-English speaking background" he said.

According to Cr Ngo, Police from ethnic background is not the answer to crime problems in Bankstown and Cabramatta, but it is one positive step forward in building trust between the community and Police.

"Today, I call on the Police Commissioner to follow Victoria Police’s lead by launching a recruiting drive targeting people from non-English speaking backgrounds" he concluded.

ENDS