Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have a proud history in my electorate of Stirling of welcoming into our local community migrants from more than 200 countries, and working with them so that they integrate fully into our society. Every wave of migration is represented in Stirling, from the arrivals from southern Europe at the end of World War II through to Vietnamese migration in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, and most recently people who have secured places under Australia’s generous humanitarian program.

Many challenges lie ahead with the arrival of thousands of new families, many from Africa and the Middle East, who are choosing to settle in Stirling in the hope of a better life. We have to make sure that these new groups of migrants to Australia mirror the success of previous groups, who have contributed greatly to their adopted nation and who have all prospered as a result.

So it pleases me to say that I am now investigating with my local council, the City of Stirling, the possibility of securing Australian government funding to become our own settlement service provider, something that I believe is unique to any part of Australia. As the local provider, the city will be able to work with our local groups in accurately assessing where the areas of greatest need are and how we can ensure that our migrants and refugees are helped to integrate into the local community. This will also build on the good work the city’s team has already done with its Mirrabooka revitalisation project. Mirrabooka is an area where many of these new families choose to settle and where the bulk of the service providers are located.

These new families in Stirling are also being helped to integrate into the community with more than $762,000 from the Commonwealth government recently being allocated to the Edmund Rice Centre and the metropolitan Migrant Resource Centre in Mirrabooka to bolster their local service programs. These centres do a remarkable job in making sure these families understand some of the basic concepts that most of us take for granted, like shopping in a supermarket, getting a driver’s licence, making a doctor’s appointment or even catching a bus.

One of the keys to future prosperity and local harmony is successful integration of new arrivals. I am proud that in Stirling we are working together to ensure that our new arrivals are provided with the tools they need to actively participate in the community and to take advantage of all the opportunities that Australian society can provide. It heartens me to know that, in Stirling, we have been able to work through any settlement issues in the past. I have every confidence that we can work through some of the future challenges that we face with our newest communities and that the latest wave of immigrants to call Australia home will be equally as successful as earlier arrivals.