Page 3159 - Week 10 - Thursday, 17 September 2015
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That this Assembly:
(1) notes the:
(a) ACT Government’s longstanding commitment to the rights of refugees to seek protection from persecution;
(b) compassion shown by the ACT community to generations of refugees who have settled in Canberra and the vital role of local specialist migrant and refugee services in supporting this process;
(c) commitment of the ACT Government to ensuring refugees and asylum seekers have access to government services which support their inclusion in the community;
(d) broad community response across Canberra and Australia in support of offering protection to a significant number of refugees fleeing the conflicts in Syria and Iraq; and
(e) successful resettlement in Canberra in 1999 of a number of families fleeing the conflict in Kosovo;
(2) welcomes the:
(a) Australian Government’s commitment to offer 12 000 additional places to refugees displaced by the conflicts in Syria and Iraq;
(b) ACT Government’s commitment to play its part in settling and supporting a number of these refugees; and
(c) ACT community’s willingness to welcome and support refugees that come to the ACT; and
(3) calls on the Australian Government to consider a sustained increase to Australia’s humanitarian intake.
On Tuesday I delivered a statement on the preparedness of this community to welcome Syrian and Iraqi refugees to live in the world’s most livable city. I have continued to be overwhelmed by the desire of the ACT community to get involved and assist in the resettlement of people seeking a better life. It has been proof of what we know: Canberra is a refugee-friendly city. As a community we have a track record of welcoming people with open arms. We look after them and we do our best to help settle them, to address the trauma in their past that has brought them here and to help them find ways to participate in community life.
This commitment is not new. The history of our nation, particularly the past 200 years, has been one of people seeking a better, safer life for themselves and their family. Many of those people have come as refugees and asylum seekers, and Canberra has a proud history of offering welcome and refuge to people escaping war and persecution. We have welcomed many groups over time. In our earliest days Canberra enjoyed a
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