Page 5119 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 17 November 2009
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where the trauma of war and famine may still be fresh. The volunteers must be supported by government in order to adequately provide support for these refugees.
Important work by organisations like Canberra Refugee Support Inc., which are community based not-for-profit organisations which welcome and provide support to refugees who wish to settle in Canberra, could not carry out all their work without the generosity and dedication of their members who all work on a part-time basis in a voluntary capacity. The support of president Geoff McPherson and his hardworking dedicated volunteers is invaluable and includes a much-needed backup to the newcomers to assist them in settling into the Canberra community. Their assistance is also often required to act in an advocacy support role as well as to provide advice across a range of issues from policy to education and health-related requirements. Their ultimate aim is to help the refugees become as independent as possible as quickly as possible.
In my recent discussions with some of these ACT service providers many issues were brought to my attention, but one of the major issues in the ACT for refugees currently is accommodation. This is a limited commodity in the ACT. It is my understanding that Catholic Care and Companion House currently manage the transitional housing program offered by the ACT government. There are currently eight houses—there were six and there has been an increase to eight—used for transitional housing, but I am told there is a requirement for many more. The figure of around 20 houses would be closer to the actual requirement and they are desperately needed right now.
Another very important skill that is necessary—and it has been mentioned by Ms Le Couteur—for newly arrived refugees is the learning of English. One of the providers of this is CIT, in conjunction with a number of service providers who currently provide English language training. As Ms Le Couteur has already noted, the volunteers and the people who assist in this category are also very welcome and much needed.
I thank Ms Le Couteur for bringing us this MPI today on the ACT government’s responsibilities with regard to refugees. I would like to end on the note that the resettlement of these refugees has come a long way since 1957, although it essentially remains the same with the majority of the contribution coming from the wonderful, dedicated volunteers of the ACT. I commend them for their contribution to our Canberra community.
MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (4.06): I welcome the opportunity today to talk in the Assembly about refugees and I thank Ms Le Couteur for putting this subject on today. Although I have already spoken about the Tamils in Sri Lanka in this place, I would like to touch on this issue again and speak more broadly about the international crisis of displaced peoples and the ACT’s responsibilities in supporting refugees and refugee services.
It was expected that the Rudd government’s attitudes towards refugee policies, which he did trumpet somewhat during the election, would help to produce a fairer and more streamlined system to determine refugee status. Indeed, such policy shifts, including abolishing the arbitrary 45-day rule, the approach to the granting of work rights and
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