Louise Markus (Greenway, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I rise to speak on an issue of great significance to the local community in my electorate of Greenway. Yesterday the Sydney Daily Telegraph published an opinion piece by Lillian Saleh about the settlement of Sudanese refugees, particularly in the Blacktown area. This article concerns me for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it contains comments that are divisive and fails to show the totality of the situation facing new Australians and the community in a broad sense. Thirteen thousand people arrive in Australia each year as offshore refugees and humanitarian entrants. Six thousand of them come as refugees. These are the people the United Nations High Commission for Refugees tells us are most in need.

Australia has always been a country that welcomes those most in need. In 2005, roughly 5,000 refugees from Sudan entered Australia. More than half of these people have settled in the Blacktown region and many of them live in my electorate. They are vibrant people who have endured much on their journey to call Australia ‘home’. The ethnic conflict that has engulfed Sudan, particularly the western region of Darfur, has been vicious. The two-year conflict has been described by the UN as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. It is estimated that two million people currently live in refugee camps and more than 180,000 have lost their lives. Starvation, displacement, separation from family members, disease and hunger are the major problems that face these refugees. Those who enter Australia do so as part of our humanitarian program. They come into what can be a very challenging situation for them—a new country, a new language and a new culture—after, as in many cases that I have seen and heard about in my electorate, years of displacement and extreme hardship.

Lillian Saleh’s article referred to comments by Paul Gibson, the Labor state member for Blacktown. He referred to the issue as ‘a powder keg waiting to go off’. These comments are inflammatory and, in my view, irresponsible especially when viewed through the lens of reality; that is, the member has demonstrated little active engagement with new and emerging communities in the local area. The article had been sparked by an incident that occurred in the Blacktown area a few weeks ago—a small scuffle, a one-off incident, that broke out between local police and some Sudanese residents. Having spoken with local police, I want to make it clear that there is no crime epidemic among the Sudanese migrants in Blacktown.

Mr Gibson referred to a meeting he chaired between Sudanese community members and local police. This is the first time he has shown the community that he has an interest in the situation. It is the first time he has brought the two parties together. Conveniently, he did this in the presence of a reporter from the Blacktown City Sun and an accompanying photographer. Although I am on one level heartened to see the member taking an interest in the local community, I am extremely disappointed that it has taken him so long to engage with the local community and that he would then seek to use the situation for political gain. It is an irresponsible way to approach the situation at hand. There are challenges for these people, and it would be foolhardy to deny that fact, but to say that the Australian government has done nothing and to claim that he is an expert on cultural resettlement is indeed naive.

I want to take this opportunity to publicly acknowledge the important work of the Blacktown Migrant Resource Centre, led by the hardworking and dedicated Irene Ross. Irene Ross and her team invest enormous energy in assisting New Australians. In the past 12 months the Blacktown Migrant Resource Centre has received record federal government funding amounting to a total of $730,000 to support community projects. The federal government is providing this funding to local people who know best what sorts of challenges are facing the community—and I stand next to the people of the migrant resource centre in working for the community. The Attorney-General’s Department fund an African worker to focus on crime prevention. A community crime prevention committee has been established to work with Sudanese leaders. It has around-the-clock consultants available to police and is developing recreational activities for young people. Integration is not a process that simply happens overnight. (Time expired)