Page 5118 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
a refugee boat between Indonesia and Australia with a significant loss of life. A frightening harbinger was what many regard as the worst maritime disaster in sight of Australian waters—the sinking of the SIEVX.
Whilst we confront some of the other issues around refugees and around those that would seek entry to Australia other than through legitimate migratory methods, through perhaps the perceived illegitimacy of arriving unannounced and without approval or authority by boat, it is important that we as Australians look with compassion and understanding at what it may be that has driven those people to that extreme journey and under such extreme life-threatening circumstance and not just blow the dog whistle around our instinctive or immediate opposition to those that would seek not to abide by our formal rules for entry to the country. I think it behoves all of us, and most particularly we politicians—those of us that have a leadership role—to continue to call for some understanding of the circumstances that those people have met in their lives and treat them with understanding and compassion when they arrive in our country.
MR DOSZPOT (Brindabella) (4.00): I thank Ms Le Couteur for bringing forward this MPI today. As some of you are no doubt very aware, the migrant-refugee experience is one that is very close to my heart, having fled with my family from Hungary in the 1950s. Back in the late 1950s when my parents and the many thousands from central Europe fled their homelands in the aftermath of the Second World War and the resulting changes in social, economic and political realignment, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees coordinated the international activities while at the local level it was mainly left to the many volunteers and church-related organisations to struggle with the influx of many thousands of refugees. It was also left to the various communities themselves to provide for their own.
Many of those who fled their homeland had left behind their extended family, so in essence these people formed a new family with those who spoke their language and shared similar experiences. In 1957, there were few, if any, specialist support organisations for those escaping religious and political persecution. Now, in 2009, we have organisations that specifically deal with those people who come to our shores as asylum seekers, just as there are for refugees and migrants. All of these groups identify with the same goal—to seek a better life for themselves and their families.
The matter of public importance before us today provides us with a great opportunity to highlight the work done currently by the service providers in the ACT to resettle and support refugees, asylum seekers and migrants alike—organisations such as Canberra Refugee Support Inc, St John’s Kippax, Companion House, St Vincent de Paul Society, Red Cross, Catholic Care, the ACT government funded Migrant and Refugee Settlement Services of the ACT, MARSS, and Multicultural Youth Services.
These organisations, and many others, are all crucial to providing this practical, real support. Of course, the work of these organisations could not continue without the commitment of the many hundreds of volunteers in Canberra. These service providers and volunteer groups all share a common aim—to help the refugees become as independent as possible as quickly as possible. Many refugees who come to Canberra find themselves in a far different environment to that of the land they are fleeing,
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video