A new national voice representing multicultural, migrant and refugee women was launched recently.

The Australian Multicultural Women’s Alliance (AMWA) was announced at the 2025 National Multicultural Health and Wellbeing Conference in Melbourne this week.

Backed by the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA), the national peak body representing Australians from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds, AMWA aims to empower women from all multicultural backgrounds to thrive and contribute fully to Australia’s prosperity.

Executive Director of AMWA Malini Raj said AMWA’s aim was to advocate for and empower multicultural women the announced.

“As an intersectional alliance, AMWA aims to advocate for gender equity, representation, and inclusion across all facets of Australian society. We are working to build a fairer, more inclusive Australia where multicultural women are safe, healthy, valued, economically secure, and represented,” Ms Raj said.

“AMWA represents an exciting and significant step towards ensuring that migrant, refugee, and culturally diverse women are heard in policy-making processes and empowered to shape not only their own, but Australia’s future too,” she said.

She said that guided by lived experiences, community insights and evidence-based research to ensure that systemic barriers are addressed and opportunities for women are unlocked, AMWA’s work will focus on five key areas shaping women’s lives:

1. Gender-Based Violence – preventing gender-based violence and ensuring access to culturally safe support for multicultural women.
2. Health – improving health outcomes for multicultural women, pushing for inclusive systems, access and care that respects cultural needs and lived experience.
3. Paid and Unpaid Care – calling for fair policies that value, support and protect migrant and refugee women who often provide essential care work.
4. Economic Security – advocating for economic equality, fair employment and opportunities that empower multicultural women to build secure and independent futures.
5. Leadership – striving to elevate multicultural women’s voices in decision-making, so leadership at every level reflects Australia’s diversity and delivers better outcomes for all.

Funded and supported by Office for Women, The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, AMWA is one of five National Women’s Alliances, established to inform policy and decision making and assist the Australian Government to implement the Working for Women: As Strategy for Gender Equality.

Launched in 2024, this ten-year national strategy sets out a path to shift the attitudes and stereotypes that drive gender inequality.

AMWA is inviting women from migrant, refugee and culturally diverse backgrounds across Australia to share their experiences in five key areas: health, care, gender based violence, economic security, and leadership.

See a video here: Australian Multicultural Women’s Alliance (AMWA) Launch Video – YouTube