Refugee Week

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (15:35): I rise today to speak about Refugee Week, first celebrated in 1986, and scheduled every year to coincide with World Refugee Day. Refugee Week here in Australia has already begun and will conclude with Refugee Day to be observed globally on 20 June 2015. In my former role and now, as a member of this parliament, I have attended and addressed countless citizenship ceremonies and, on these occasions, some of those receiving their citizenship were refugees who had fled their homeland due to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion or nationality.

Today I reflect on the journeys and aspirations of these new citizens when I consider Refugee Week, which serves as a way of raising awareness about the many issues impacting on refugees. Its theme this year is 'With courage let us all combine', words drawn from the second verse of our national anthem. This theme acknowledges the courage of refugees as they leave families, friends and homes, perhaps forever, to flee conflict, religious or political persecution and injustice, in search of a better life for themselves and their children.

It encourages us to give a warmer welcome to refugees and to acknowledge the skills and ingenuity, the energy and creativity, and the sheer imagination they bring to our community. These are undoubtedly the characteristics of people who make and carry out the extraordinary decision to step into the unknown, to keep going in adversity and sometimes despair, and to start all over again, work hard and create a new home where they can live in safety and peace.

Refugee Week also provides an opportunity to acknowledge our refugee leaders and advocates and, importantly, those many compassionate Australians who work most quietly and often without recognition to give comfort to refugees and to help them settle into their new lives. In my electorate of Torrens I shine a light on Wandana Community Centre and its manager, Rille Walshe, and her volunteers, who work tirelessly with refugees in the community.

Finally, this global observance invites us to consider the many positive contributions made to Australian society over the past several decades by the 800,000 plus people who were once refugees and who sought our aid in their time of need. Among them are people like:

Ahn Do who arrived by boat from Vietnam as a child. He is the author of The Happiest Refugee, the 2011 Book of the Year, and an Archibald Prize finalist. He is also the brother of Khoa Do, film director and Young Australian of the Year in 2005.

Tan Le, a refugee from Vietnam, now a technology entrepreneur and co-founder of Emotiv, which specialises in electroencephalography headsets.

Les Murray, the eminent sports journalist and soccer broadcaster whose parents came to Australia under the Hungarian refugee assisted scheme.

Sir Gustav Nossal, a distinguished research biologist, esteemed for his contributions in the areas of immunological tolerance and antibody formation, and a former Australian of the Year. His family fled Vienna for Australia following the Nazi annexation of Austria.

Frank Lowy, a Holocaust survivor and now founder of the world's largest shopping centre group and a significant contributor to our economic and cultural life.

The Hon. Tung Ngo in another place.

Our Governor, His Excellency Hieu Van Le, who arrived by boat from Vietnam in 1977 with his wife, Mrs Lan Le, and who is now our highly regarded vice-regal representative who has done so much for our community in South Australia.

As His Excellency noted with typical modesty when he took up his new role:

I arrived here 36 years ago with nothing but an invisible suitcase filled with dreams to live in a peaceful, safe and free country to live a meaningful and fulfilling life.

And is that not what each of us aspires to do for ourselves and our families? Of course, there are thousands of other stories we will never hear—stories of refugees who fled from fear, conflict, persecution and injustice but who survived and worked hard and who are so happy to have a second chance.