Department of Veterans’ Affairs: ‘A Century of Service’: Community Research Phase II: Report (August 2011)
Report of focus group research on how Australia should commemorate the Anzac centenary. An issue raised in the report of the Anzac centenary commission (pp 67-75: executive summary of the Colmar Brunton Phase II report, which is no longer accessible in full) was how ‘multicultural Australia’ might react to centenary commemorations. This reflected the views of focus groups not fully representative of Australia’s multicultural diversity. The focus groups in the further research thus included people from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds and across age groups.
The findings were that overall there was a low risk of a problem with multicultural Australia, though some groups, particularly the Turkish community, needed special attention, and that there was a generally positive reaction from those interviewed to the Anzac commemoration proposals in the commission report.
There is an opportunity for part of the legacy of the Anzac Centenary to include a more harmonious multicultural Australia – but it will require more than just the Department of Veterans’ Affairs to realise that opportunity. (p. 3)
