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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 8 Hansard (25 June) . . Page.. 2114 ..

MR KAINE (continuing):

and refugees, who, fortunately, number somewhat less than that but who are not an inconsiderable number. For example, in the five years between July 1991 and June 1996, a total of 670 refugee and humanitarian program entrants to Australia have, in fact, settled in this city. It is not a lot of people; but, when you look at that in the context of a population of 300,000, it does constitute, in real terms, a lot of people and a lot of suffering. Yet those people come to this country, they come to this community and they make an enormous contribution.

Their first contribution, as with all other migrants, is that they bring their culture with them, and their culture is assimilated into ours. I think anybody who has observed the progress of Australia, as a nation and as a society, over the last 50 or 60 years has to be struck by the richness of the society now compared with what it was 50 or 60 years ago. Some of us are old enough to remember that; others amongst us are not. I certainly remember what Australia was like in the 1930s and the 1940s. It was an interesting country; but it had some rough edges. The arrival of these people in Australia has had a major impact on our culture and has enriched us, I believe, enormously.

But their contribution is more than simply a cultural enrichment of this country. Everywhere you look in Canberra, you see people who have only recently, in relative terms, arrived in this country, whether as refugees or simply as migrants. You find them in every field of endeavour. You have only to look at the telephone book to see the change. I can remember when the telephone book consisted of Browns, Smiths, Joneses, MacDonalds, Campbells, O'Neills and O'Learys, and there were not many others. They were all Anglo-Saxon names. And that is in my lifetime. It is rather different today, is it not?

Even to read the telephone book is an experience. There are all those new names from so many different parts of the world. Those people are working and living in this community. It does not matter whether you are talking about the Public Service, whether you are talking about commerce, whether you are talking about business, particularly small business - in any activity that is carried on in this city you find people who have arrived in this country only recently, many of them traumatised people who have had to come to find a new life for themselves. They work diligently and they make their contribution to this society, both economically and in any other way that you care to imagine. It is my strong personal belief, Mr Speaker, that these people have enriched our community enormously. They make their contribution. We have to understand that they do not come without their scars and their bruises, and we have an obligation, as a community, to make their landing a little softer, if we can, and to make their transition to being useful, productive citizens of this country as painless as possible.

It is through organisations, many of which we have in this Territory, like the Multicultural Council and all the subordinate ethnic groups that constitute that body, and through activities like Refugee Week, that we can make natural-born Australians aware of these problems; and that we can make sure that they understand that these people are not just ordinary people, but are special people, and that they deserve special attention. I commend my motion to all members of this Assembly.

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