ADJOURNMENT

Senator SCARR (Queensland) (19:40): Refugee Week was celebrated between Sunday 14 June and Saturday 20 June. This is the 40th year in which Refugee Week has been held. The theme for this year was A Million Stories.

I want to tell three stories during my contribution here this evening. The first one relates to an event that was hosted by Her Excellency the Governor-General, the Hon. Ms Sam Mostyn AC, and Mr Simeon Beckett SC at the Governor-General's residence.

This was an event that celebrated Refugee Week but also celebrated the launch of a stamp issued by Australia Post. This stamp celebrates the fact that, last year, Australia settled its one millionth refugee since World War II. That's an outstanding achievement and part of the Australian story.

During the event, which was so nicely hosted by the Governor-General and Mr Simeon Beckett—they do a wonderful job of welcoming everyone to the Governor-General's residence—we heard one of those stories from a former governor of South Australia. The Hon. Hieu Van Le AC came to this country by boat as a refugee from Vietnam.

Just think about this: he fled Vietnam, made his way by boat to Australia and then became, a number of decades later, governor of South Australia. What a great story. We heard about his perilous journey by boat—in fact, there were two journeys.

He was actually appointed navigator, after the first journey, because he seemed to have an idea as to how to navigate even though he had no experience. He told the story of how they were approaching Australia, approaching Darwin, when they came across a tinnie with two Aussie fishermen who lifted their beers and said: 'G'day mate. Welcome to Australia.' What a wonderful Australian story.

At the Governor-General's residence, we also met people from Chile, the Baltic States, Vietnam, Sudan—a million stories from all over the world—who have established wonderful lives in Australia. We saw the unveiling of the beautiful stamp, which was a collaborative project by the Refugee Council of Australia, UNHCR and Australia Post. And it is a beautiful stamp.

It evokes the tale of a million stories coming from all over the world and becoming part of Australia—a multicultural Australia. Last Saturday, I attended the Multicultural Community Centre football festival for 2026. This involved a number of teams comprised of members of different communities, including people who have come here as refugees—another wonderful event.

I want to congratulate my good friend Jeannie Mok OAM who does such wonderful work in this area. The Multicultural Community Centre empowers people who have come to this country, including those who have come to our country as refugees. It gives them skills, it gives them training, it helps place them in the workforce—in aged care, child care, hospitality.

It empowers people, and that's what multiculturalism is all about. At that event I met Mr Jay Phillips, who is the general manager of a family owned timber packaging company called CMTP. I spoke to Mr Phillips about CMTP, a family owned company celebrating its 50th year and founded by Chris and Marilyn Meade.

He told me how the company employs people from refugee backgrounds and gives them an opportunity by giving them employment in our manufacturing industry. What a terrific story; what a great story. During the course of that event, all I heard was gratitude—gratitude from members of our multicultural community and, for those who've come here as refugees, gratitude that they were given an opportunity to come to Australia to build their lives and contribute to our beautiful country.

I want to give a shout-out to CMTP. Thank you so much for your support of the Multicultural Community Centre football festival and thank you for everything that you do as a Queensland family owned company to support new arrivals to Australia, including those who have refugee backgrounds. Thank you so much.

The last event I want to speak about is an event which I just attended this evening, which was hosted by the Parliamentary Friends of Refugees group. I'm a proud co-chair of that group. The Refugee Council of Australia helped organise an event this evening which provided an insight into what are referred to as complementary pathways.

These are pathways complementary to our basic commitment to provide opportunities for refugees to come to the country. They provide additional methods by which people can come to our country. Again we heard amazing stories of people who've come to Australia as refugees through these complementary pathways.

We heard about the Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Program pilot, CRISP, and about a wonderful group at Aireys Inlet. I want to give a shout-out to the Aireys Inlet Rural Australians for Refugees group, who welcomed Antoine, Jeanine and their children from Burundi. They are now building their life at Aireys Inlet.

It was so enriching to see the connection between that community at Aireys Inlet and that new family who have made their way to Australia from Burundi and are achieving all of these milestones: getting a drivers licence, getting a job in the local community and contributing to the community. It was enriching to see just how happy and filled with gratitude that family is.

Thank you so much to the Aireys Inlet Rural Australians for Refugees group. You really do represent the very best of Australian values. We then heard from two wonderful people who came to Australia under the Skilled Refugee Labour Agreement pilot program.

This included Samira, who's come to Australia from Afghanistan and now works as an accountant at Hachette, a finance company. She told us her story and in fact the story of her family as well, which is absolutely inspiring. Her husband is now a general manager of a hotel in Australia and is also incredibly successful.

I want to congratulate Talent Beyond Boundaries in relation to their work with Samira. We also heard from Basha from Syria, who now works as a pharmacist in Darwin. Congratulations to the Northern Territory health department for providing an opportunity for Basha to come to Australia with his family and build a future as a pharmacist in Darwin.

We also heard about the refugee student settlement pathway, Skill Path Australia. We heard from two wonderful young people who are now studying in Australia. I have no doubt they will make a wonderful contribution to our beautiful country.

We heard from Umar, who is from the Rohingya community. He is studying civil engineering at Deakin University. I'd like to congratulate Deakin University for their efforts in this regard.

Umar did you proud. He had glowing references for Deakin University. He wants to be a civil engineer, and he's focused on affordable housing and the provision of infrastructure, especially for rural and regional areas.

He gave a terrific speech with a great dose of Australian humour. We also heard from Sumaia, who comes from Somalia originally. She is studying education at the University of Sydney.

Again, it was a wonderful, heartfelt story about how she's contributing to our beautiful country. A Million Stories, a million people from all over the world who've come to Australia as refugees and have contributed to our beautiful country—this represents the very, very best of multicultural Australia. It is something which should be celebrated, it is part of the Australian story, and it's something which we should cherish.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Ciccone ): Thank you, Senator Scarr, for that lovely contribution.