Page 1813 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 8 June 2016
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I know there are community groups and individuals that work hard to help integrate refugees into our community. Calls frequently go out for furniture and household goods to help set families up around the city. I am amazed at the commitment that people have to supporting new families and the generosity of our community in coming forward and being so caring and generous in their donations. Any support the ACT government can provide is also welcome.
But this speaks to the value of having the community involved. In Canberra every day people are doing this work, with or without the government’s involvement. This work is owned by the community, and I think that is a real strength. We do not need the government to take over all of this work as the government cannot offer what the community can offer—dinner invitations to people’s houses, friends for children to play with, and a sense of belonging.
The government can support those who are doing this work, perhaps financially, perhaps with information and networking or infrastructure or even coordination across government. But it is inspiring to see the community play that role and acknowledging that the government cannot do all of these things and is perhaps not the best one to do some of these things.
I am proud to live in a community that welcomes refugees and other migrants into our community. I am pleased our local government supports this wholeheartedly. Against the backdrop of some appalling federal policies and an appalling federal debate on refugees, it is the very least we can do to ensure that we deliver a safe, supportive and generous environment for new arrivals to our city.
DR BOURKE (Ginninderra—Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Minister for Children and Young People, Minister for Disability, Minister for Small Business and the Arts and Minister for Veterans and Seniors) (12.00): I am proud that Canberra’s community is made up of a diversity of peoples and cultures and that we have become a welcoming place for refugees and migrants from across the world. We are a refugee welcome zone, and I am honoured that people have chosen our city, have joined our community and that we are building our future together. We celebrate the diversity of the Canberra community and Australia’s many cultures that have come together to form our nation.
Australia’s greatest achievement, I am often fond of saying, is our embrace of many cultures and of multiculturalism as a national philosophy. Canberra is one of the most multicultural cities in one of the most multicultural nations. Author George Megalogenis has recently highlighted the changing face of Australia. Nationally, 28 per cent of our population was born overseas and 20 per cent has at least one parent born overseas. Of the 28 per cent of overseas-born people, 10 per cent are now from Asia, primarily from India and China, which is greater than the percentage born in the UK, Ireland and New Zealand.
In Canberra around 150 languages are spoken in our homes. That perhaps reflects that 40 per cent of Canberrans are either born overseas or at least one of their parents was. People from many cultures have arrived here, some as refugees from their homelands escaping war, oppression, famine or grinding poverty and have found new opportunities here.
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