David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last month, on 3 August, I had the privilege to go to Wagga Wagga to be with the Yazidi community and the local Wagga community to reflect on the 10th anniversary of the appalling genocide against the Yazidi people. It was on 3 August in 2014 that ISIS attacked the Yazidi community in Sinjar in Iraq. The brutality that was inflicted against the Yazidi community that went for months and months—there were mass killings, abductions and violence unimaginable in any community—is rightly called a genocide. There have been at least 85 mass graves identified in and around Sinjar. As the Yazidi community saw the extent of the violence, they fled into the mountains. Sadly, thousands then died from malnourishment and the effects of the extreme climate.

From 2016, though, the Yazidi community started arriving in Wagga. The then government—I give them this credit—recognised that genocide was occurring, undertook a rapid program to provide a safe pathway for the Yazidi community, rapidly assessed the security concerns and brought them to Australia. The community has flourished in Wagga, and I want to credit the state member, the local mayor and the thousands of ordinary people from Wagga who have come and wrapped around and supported the Yazidi community. I can't tell you how much pain there was in the room at Henschke Catholic Primary School on 3 August. Mums were still crying about their lost kids. Fathers had lost everyone. The pain was real. But we did it right with the Yazidi community in providing that space and a safe place, and let's remember that.