Page 1800 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 8 June 2016
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Our community clearly recognises the overwhelming benefit that new migrants, refugees and asylum seekers bring to Canberra. In February this year, I took part in the 20th National Multicultural Festival, along with about 240,000 of my fellow Canberrans and 43,000 interstate and international tourists. This event has become an integral part of the Canberra events calendar, with over 4,500 community volunteers participating this year. I was proud to see Canberrans and visitors from over 170 nations come together to participate.
Canberra has accepted people from very diverse backgrounds, and the way we have accepted people with different backgrounds is testament to how accepting Canberrans are. As a community, we accepted the Greeks, Italians and Germans after World War II; the Vietnamese in the 1970s and 1980s; people fleeing from violence in Latin America; a significant resettlement from Kosovo; people escaping persecution in Myanmar and Thailand, particularly the Mon and Karen communities; Sudanese families fleeing violence; and people fleeing ongoing violence in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. These people all had very legitimate reasons for leaving their countries. For the federal immigration minister to suggest otherwise shows how little empathy he has for people who are in need. Our community is better than the rubbish that is spewed forth by Minister Dutton and Liberal colleagues who refuse to repudiate his comments.
These people sell their homes; they uproot their entire families; they sometimes pay enormous sums of money after being promised safety. They take the perilous journey across harsh oceans and under very difficult circumstances. They then end up in an offshore camp and have no idea whether they will ever come to this country after having sacrificed so much. They would not do all of that without good reason. They are not here to steal our jobs and they are not here to steal welfare. They are here because Australia gives them hope of a safe and prosperous future for their family. They are looking for a very Aussie response from us. They are looking for what we call a fair go.
People who appreciate opportunity and the chance of a new life through hard work and embracing opportunity are exactly the kind of people I want to see living in the territory. Those attributes reflect a very Australian attitude. I would suggest that those articulated by Mr Dutton and other Liberals do not.
I commend the motion to the Assembly.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Tourism and Events and Minister for Urban Renewal) (11.16): I thank Mr Hinder very much for bringing forward this motion this morning, because it gives us in this place another opportunity to express our appreciation and our ongoing support to refugees and to asylum seekers who have made Canberra their home over generations. The upcoming World Refugee Day also provides us with a moment to reflect on what it means to flee from your home, to flee for your life, to barely escape murderous regimes and armies, to be often separated from your loved ones, sometimes with little more than the clothes on your own back.
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