PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS
Mr TIM WILSON (Goldstein) (18:03): I was hoping the spirit of the debate would be in favour of world refugee status and World Refugee Day and would elevate the conversation, but unfortunately the previous member chose to turn into a partisan political point. But here we are. We're standing here today because we're supporting World Refugee Day, which is marked on 20 June each year.
This year is particularly important. It's the 75th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention. Having served as Australia's Human Rights Commissioner and having worked with refugees in Australia and in other parts of the world, including with the commission to get children out of detention who were locked up during the previous Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years, it's incredibly important that we have a sustainable and generous program to support people who come through legal means to seek asylum and be granted refugee status.
It's incredibly important because what we do as a nation must be consistent with the spirit of the refugee convention, which is to ensure that those who come here go through proper identity security and health assessments so that we maintain social licence and support in the pathway of giving them resettlement for a new home. That's what's been so disappointing.
When we see a flouting of those basic tests of identity security and health assessment, it doesn't just impact the current debate about support for refugees; it actually undermines public confidence in support for refugees overall. It's important because we never know what crisis is around the corner. Only today, I've had constituents from the Goldstein electorate contact me about the risks emerging from the humanitarian crisis that's evolving in Sudan and the need for Australia, through appropriate means, to work with other international agencies to make sure that we're in a position to support those who are victims of that.
Almost every member's electorate will have refugees or the children of refugees who've come to our country. In the Goldstein electorate, we had the postwar generation of Holocaust survivors, those who were victims of one of the most terrible incidents in human history. They're not alone.
We've had people fleeing from other places, like from the Soviet Union and the madness of communism. We've had different migrations, from people from Vietnam, the Balkans, the Middle East and, more recently, Afghanistan and Ukraine. Each of them has added a stitch to the social fabric of our nation.
They can't do so just by arriving. They do so by bringing their whole selves to this country and by committing and contributing to this country. Integration is not just something we have to say; it is something we have to live.
It happens through being engaged in the economic, social and cultural integration of our nation. I'd like to acknowledge the fact that the myriad of refugees who come to our country absolutely seek to, and are determined to, build out a better life for themselves and their families and commit, contribute and become full participants in the Australian way of life.
They also do so with the support and assistance of others. I want to thank those organisations, particularly in our community, that assist in that journey, such as the Bayside Refugee Advocacy and Support Association, otherwise known as BRASA. They do a lot of advocacy work, but they also raise funds and collect non-perishable foods, toiletries and household cleaning products for the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre and the organisations that support them.
I'd like to thank Judy Carroll, Judith Rafferty, Libby Strain and Geraldine Moore for their incredible work in being supportive of people who are refugees in our community or surrounding communities. They also work with local cultural institutions. I'm thinking particularly about Hampton Uniting Church.
They do incredible work connecting directly to community. We also have Compass Community Care. They work to support displaced Ukrainians living in Melbourne.
They help approximately 550 to 600 individuals each week who are suffering from food insecurity and need access to basic staples to live with basic dignity. They do deals with groups like Foodbank, Coles and Aldi to make sure that that assistance is provided. I want to thank the team, particularly Jim McMillan, who's the head of charity, and Andrew Ambroisine, who's the head of operations.
There's also Bayside Community Emergency Relief, which is 100 per cent volunteer run and does incredible work across the community. English language lessons are also provided for people through groups like GEALC, the Glen Eira Adult Learning Centre in McKinnon, Caulfield South Community House, Godfrey Street Community House in Bentleigh and Moongala Women's Community House in Bentleigh.
Thank you for all your work.