COVID-19 information is regularly updated on the Department of Health website, but so far online information appears to be available in just eight languages — simplified and traditional Chinese, Arabic, Farsi, Italian, Vietnamese, Korean and English. The Victorian state government website provides coronavirus information in 15 other languages.
Adbul Khaliq Fazal, chairperson of the Afghan Australian Association of Victoria, told the ABC he hadn’t been able to find any Government COVID-19 resources in Pashto.
“We received limited information from the [health] department … they [should be providing] accurate and reliable information to all Australian communities,” he said.
Robyn Woodward-Kron, associate professor of healthcare communication at the University of Melbourne, told the ABC it was “extremely important” that people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds had the same access to accurate health information.
“Some of the older migrants in Australia have had very little schooling, having left their countries at a young age, so they need reliable information that they can understand,” she said.
“Otherwise, they are likely to be more marginalised and vulnerable.”
Shadow Minister for Health Chris Bowen recently released a statement calling on the Government to do more, saying it was “urgent” that important public health information gets to multicultural communities.
“The Morrison Government must make information about COVID-19 available in more languages so that multicultural communities across Australia have access to the latest information on the virus,” he said.
