Page 5123 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 17 November 2009
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professional people smugglers who approach them with the full-colour brochures and false promises. For example, I have been told the story of a young Sudanese man, who now calls Australia home, whose mother begged members of a Sudanese war lord’s army not to recruit her then 10-year-old son into one of the infamous child soldier armies. In return, they cut off two of his fingers to stop him from firing a gun and being recruited to an opposing militia. To save him, his mother sent him south with a group of other young Sudanese men, braving lion attacks and warring militia, to a Kenyan refugee camp, where he languished for 12 years before being granted refugee status in Australia. He is now a law student, a proud and loyal Australian citizen and a wonderful, active new addition to the Australian community. In fact, even Mr Doszpot has told us today and in his maiden speech that his family were refugees, and it is wonderful to see that he is a proud member of an Australian family and a member here in the Assembly.
Sadly, we often see refugees demonised and blamed for all manner of sins. The appalling terms such as “queue jumpers”, “refos” and “threats to our national security” are just offensive and, indeed, not helpful in the least. We have heard shock jocks all over the nation running out the age-old cliches; we have heard the Liberal MP Wilson Tuckey creating fear and divisions by saying terrorists could be aboard refugee boats; we have heard the Liberal-National Party MP Vaughan Johnson say all overseas taxi drivers look the same. Just last week we heard the leader, Malcolm Turnbull, say that the Liberal Party would resurrect the appalling Howard government policy of temporary protection visas.
Refugees are people in need; they are people crying out for help. Australia has a wonderful record of accepting and supporting refugees, and the ACT government is committed to honouring that. The ACT government is committed to assisting refugees, asylum seekers and other humanitarian entrants to resettle in the ACT. In fact, our city is rich with stories of refugee successes. We have some wonderful stories of Canberrans who came here as refugees, such as Tu Pham, the ACT Auditor-General.
The ACT government has a firm understanding of the needs of refugees and other humanitarian entrants. The Refugee, Asylum Seeker and Humanitarian Coordination Committee is a key way in which the ACT government connects with community service providers assisting refugees. Key stakeholders represented on the committee include the Migrant and Refugee Settlement Service, the Queanbeyan Multilingual Centre, the Multicultural Youth Service, Companion House, adult migrant English program at the CIT, ACT community services, Centacare new arrivals humanitarian services, Canberra Refugee Support, St John the Apostle Refugee Resettlement Committee, Kippax, St Vincent de Paul and the Australian Red Cross.
I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the pivotal role these organisations and others play in the resettlement of refugees, asylum seekers and other humanitarian entrants. These organisations have an incredible source of assistance and expertise to provide the necessary resources to individuals with refugee backgrounds. The Refugee, Asylum Seeker and Humanitarian Coordination Committee brings these and other stakeholders together to facilitate settlement support for asylum seekers.This is characterised by assisting with the identification of issues, facilitating the provision and exchange of information, and contributing to the development of
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