Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to talk about something that has been true about the electorate of Mallee for a very long time. Peter Fisher, the MP from 1972 to 1993, who I am sure you will know, made the comment to me as a candidate that the people of Mallee are a very tolerant electorate. And we have continued to be a very tolerant electorate.

On Thursday night last week I had the tremendous privilege of going to a dinner with the Karen people in Nhill. I have been on a bit of a journey with the Karen people. When I was President of the Victorian Farmers Federation I was involved with the Parachute for Poverty. Forty people had to raise $1,000 each and jump out of an aeroplane, with the $40,000 raised going towards buying a banana plantation on the Thai-Burma border. It was said to me many times that I would have raised quite a bit more if I had not had the parachute. Whilst the cause was good, I suspect the outcome had I not had the parachute may not have been welcome on this side. Those opposite may have seen the value in me jumping without a parachute!

The Karen people have been a marvellous addition to the Nhill community. It is testament to what can happen when people go through due process and the community wraps their arms around them. There are 140,000 Karen refugees on the Thai-Burma border. Their journey came, being dispossessed people, at the end of the Second World War, and the Burmese will not let them back in. They sit in a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees administered camp. Many of those refugees have spent up to 20 years waiting. They do not have the financial resources to be able to pay a boat to try to smuggle them in; they have to sit there and wait. But when they have been able to get their UNHCR registration number they have been more than welcome to come into Australia as refugees.

Nhill is an interesting name, because there was nil unemployment in Nhill. It is a little country town and we could not get workers. We had great businesses like Luv-a-Duck, and Sherwell and Campbell Silos, and we needed people. This is the case right across regional Australia. We do need people. To people who say to me that there are no jobs or that they are upset that they might have to move to find a job, can I say: move to the country and take up some of these jobs. Frankly, their quality of life will be so much more enhanced by breathing the fresh air and getting away from the smog, and they will see the value of community.

Fifty of these Karen people are now working in Nhill. They are buying houses and they have been integrated and wrapped around. I had the great privilege and honour to be presented with an outfit that is only presented to the elders of the Karen. It was testament to me that when you have a community that is prepared to stand by a group of refugees and when you have refugees who are prepared to wait and go through the due process, we can actually achieve a win-win. This has been a win not only for reconciliation and not only for the culture and the greatness and beauty that they bring to the community; it has also been an economic win. We have seen people be able to fill jobs that they were having trouble filling. Those jobs have led to productivity and to growth. In the township of Nhill you cannot rent or buy a house; you have to build a house. The place is full. It is a fantastic story. This is where we need to be heading.

Whilst we need a very firm and strong border security platform, we also need to complement that with a very good humanitarian process, where we take in people who have gone through the due process, put them in country communities, get them jobs and let Australians exercise one of the great things that has always been good about Australians—that is, our tolerance and inclusiveness. I think Nhill is an example that many parts of Australia can look to. Peter Fisher was right even in 1972: the electorate of Mallee is tolerant, they are compassionate and it is a great electorate to be able to represent.