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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-10-31 Daily Xml
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WELCOME TO AUSTRALIA

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (15:45): Today I rise to speak about asylum seekers, refugees and Welcome to Australia. It should not be necessary—but I believe it is—to define asylum seekers and refugees before I begin to commend the work of Welcome to Australia. An asylum seeker, according to the Australian Human Rights Commission, is a person who has fled their own country and applied for protection as a refugee.

According to the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, as amended by its 1967 protocol (the Refugee Convention), a refugee is a person who is outside their own country and unable or unwilling to return due to a well-founded fear of being persecuted because of their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion. Asylum seekers and refugees have taken on a whole new meaning in the current political debate, and it is much, I think, to our shame.

One organisation that gives me hope is Welcome to Australia, which was founded in Adelaide. It is a not-for-profit organisation which believes there needs to be a positive voice in the public conversation around asylum seeking, refugees and multiculturalism. It is not politically aligned, and it is led by Adelaide pastor, Brad Chilcott, who I am sure many members would have met or seen in the media. It is run by a team of volunteers and has over 35 partner organisations. That team includes a range of people of cultures and faiths.

It has a range of programs designed to give a warm, positive and dignified welcome to asylum seekers, refugees and other new arrivals. These include Enhance Australia, which builds the capacity of international students to establish support networks in their local communities. It works with uni students and volunteers in regional areas and capital cities. It also exposes the broader community to the benefits of having international students living and working here.

The organisation has another project of mentoring new arrivals aged eight to 14 who are on humanitarian visas living here in Adelaide. It helps these young people learn about Australian culture and society through spending time together recreationally, helping with their schoolwork, practising English and also talking with their mentors about the life and culture they have previously experienced.

High school seminars are also undertaken by Welcome to Australia which educate South Australian high school children and, I am sure, staff about the facts, the real stories, the human stories and the history of asylum seekers and refugees in Australia. Students can ask questions and personally meet some of the people. Where asylum seekers and refugees have been particularly dehumanised and demonised in this culture, I think it is an incredibly important thing.

There is also a program called Welcome to My Place, which gives individuals and communities the opportunity to meet asylum seekers in a warm and dignified manner. They recently held an event called Walk Together. The Premier Jay Weatherill spoke at it and the Leader of the Opposition Isobel Redmond was also there. Certainly, myself and my colleague Mark Parnell I were there and, I believe, the Hon. Jennifer Rankine, the Hon. Jing Lee, Senator Penny Wright, Steve Georganas and Lieutenant-Governor Hieu Van Le. I apologise if I have missed anybody. For those of you who were not there, a wonderful speech was delivered by Pastor Brad Chilcott, which went along these lines:

[Yes, we're here today because] we're asylum seekers, we're refugees, we're international students, we're recent migrants our ancestors were.

But beyond the labels and adjectives we're here today because we're people. We're people who recognise that although we each have our own story, our own culture, our own language we are now one community.

We're one community with a diversity of backgrounds but a united belief that a better future is possible than the one built by fear and negativity. We're one community united by our humanity.

We're united by the belief that the border you happened to be born behind should not determine the level of opportunity. Should not limit your ability to reach your potential.

We're one community united by the idea that walking together is better than walking apart. We believe that this nation will thrive and it will prosper when we walk side by side into our future.

We say today, as one community, that no matter who you are, where you've come from or how you arrived here—we are now in this together.

Together we hear the voices of those who seek to divide us for the sake of short-term political gain and together we say we will not be divided.

Together we have grown weary of the rhetoric of suspicion and prejudice—but we have not grown weary of compassion, we are not tired of generosity.

Brad Chilcott went on to say:

We have walked together today because we can imagine a future where prejudice is unpopular, where cruelty is punished at the polls instead of praised, where diversity is celebrated, not tolerated and where our leaders win by calling out the best in us—inspiring us to achieve our welcoming, inclusive, compassionate and generous best.

I cannot commend these words more to this chamber.

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