The Turnbull government will on Tuesday end a long period of uncertainty at the top of broadcaster SBS by announcing multicultural affairs adviser Bulent Hass Dellal as its new chair.
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Dr Dellal, the director of the Australian Multicultural Foundation, has been an SBS board member since 2010 and previously served as deputy chair.
He has been acting chair for the past year since the sudden departure of controversial chair Nihal Gupta, a prominent Liberal Party donor who lasted just 16 months in the role.
Dr Dellal also served as acting chair when the Abbott government declined to reappoint investment banker Joseph Skrzynski to a second term.
In an interview with Fairfax Media, Dr Dellal rejected calls by former ABC managing director Mark Scott for the two organisations to merge. Mr Scott said SBS was becoming less distinctive and combining the two broadcasters would save costs.
Dr Dellal said the surging popularity of anti-immigration parties such as One Nation only makes a standalone multicultural broadcaster more important than ever.
"Whether it is about immigration or multiculturalism or terrorism in the Middle East, we have a vital role to play to keep Australians informed," he said.
"SBS helps to settle new migrant communities, it promotes diversity of thought and the benefits of multiculturalism, it helps create social cohesion.
"Simply being ethnically diverse doesn't make you a successful multicultural nation - you need services like SBS to make it work."
Dr Dellal said his own parents and their friends, who migrated from Cyprus to Australia in the 1940s, had benefited from SBS's foreign language programming.
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield said Dr Dellal will serve for a term of just over three years.
Senator Fifield said Dr Dellal's extensive experience in community relations, business, police relations, second language development and the arts made him perfectly suited to the role.
The government was acting on the advice of its independent nomination panel which selected Dr Dellal for the role.
The panel is currently considering candidates for the next chair of the ABC.
A former music and drama teacher, Dr Dellal was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1997 for service to multicultural organisations, the arts and the community.
