Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Friday night in Brisbane at the Roma Street Parkland, I attended a candlelight vigil in support of and to welcome refugees in our community. It was a wonderful event, attended by more than 3,000 people from Brisbane across a wide range of sectors, from people like former Lord Mayor Jim Soorley to the moderator of the Uniting Church, David Baker. We all came together to celebrate the best of refugees, to recognise that their contribution to our society is an asset. They bring determination and they bring aspiration. These are the sorts of people we want in our community. We are celebrating the fact that we will have, in the not-too-distant future, 12,000 Syrian refugees come and resettle in Australia, where they will be welcome. Speakers on the night included Andrew Bartlett, representing the Greens, and Jackie Trad, representing the state government, and I was delighted to be invited by the Multicultural Development Association to speak. I also noticed that Terri Butler, the member for Griffith, was in the audience, so I asked Terri to join me on the stage because our support for refugees is something that we are united in. I thank Welcome to Australia for organising the event and the Multicultural Development Association, who are doing a wonderful job of resettling people in their new country.