Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last month, I had the pleasure of hosting a briefing in Parliament House for members and senators—and, if I may say, Madam Deputy Speaker Vamvakinou, you were among them—to introduce them to a new and very vibrant group called Welcome to Australia, which is based in my electorate of Hindmarsh.

Welcome to Australia has a simple goal: to make all newcomers, migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Australia feel very welcome in their local community, no matter where they are from. The group encourages all Australians to make simple but powerful gestures of welcome toward all newly arrived migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in their neighbourhoods, in their schools and in their workplaces. It gives people the chance to publicly declare their desire to be seen as a welcoming Australian, to celebrate diversity and to recognise the fact that human-to-human contact is one of the best ways to change attitudes and perceptions.

Welcome to Australia, as you would have heard at the briefing, began in April this year. Their first initiative was to encourage people to host 'welcome parties' to help bust some of the myths about refugees and asylum seekers and to celebrate diversity. Over 70 parties were registered across five states of Australia and they took on numerous shapes, including: a film festival in Brisbane; a welcome walk in Newcastle, New South Wales; and an outdoor party hosted by the Fremantle city council in Western Australia.

In my own electorate of Hindmarsh, the Director of Welcome to Australia, Brad Chilcott, gave out free coffee all day from his shop, handed out fact sheets and also showed a movie co-produced with Amnesty International about refugees. Brad is a very hardworking and active member of the local community, who has a wide range of involvement with social justice issues and campaigns. Last month, he came to Parliament House to brief members and senators on the work that Welcome to Australia has been doing and what lies ahead for the organisation. Sitting suspended from 11:35 to 11:36

As I said, Brad was a very hardworking and active member of the local community who has had a wide range of involvement. Last month he came to Parliament House to brief members and senators on the work that Welcome to Australia was doing and has been doing and what lies ahead for the organisation. It has certainly been an impressive start, underpinned by grassroots community support and supported to date by 35 non-government organisations. Welcome to Australia also boasts lists of distinguished ambassadors, including World Vision CEO Tim Costello, Father Bob Maguire, Adelaide Crows player Ivan Maric and multiplatinum award-winning musician Katie Noonan.

I believe that the community has been asking for a long time for cooperation and collaboration on issues surrounding refugees and asylum seekers and that this is a small but significant step towards it. With many new migrants and refugees set to arrive in Australia this year, boosting our skills, enriching our culture and enhancing diversity, I think that there has never been a better time to refresh and renew the welcoming spirit than now. Let us not forget that here in Australia we have been welcoming people to our country for a very, very long time. In more than 64 years of planned postwar migration, Australia has welcomed more than seven million people, 10 per cent of them refugees, to Australia. Madam Deputy Speaker Vamvakinou, among the thousands and thousands of people who arrived from war-torn Europe after World War II, of course, were your parents and my parents, who arrived from Greece in the mid-fifties. They have never forgotten those people who welcomed them with open arms and offered them the spirit of friendship as they settled into life in Australia. Now there is nothing better I can do as the member for Hindmarsh than to give back and continue that culture of welcome for those people arriving now, and there will be plenty of opportunities for all of us to get involved in doing that. This financial year, 185,000 people will arrive to start a new life in Australia. Many of them will be our work colleagues, our neighbours, our shopkeepers or our fellow students. As I said, they will become part of our communities. I know that we, as leaders in our communities, will do all that we can to help to make sure it is a smooth start. I know that there are many Australians who want to do all that they can do.

One thing that was really interesting to hear during the briefing was how many Australians are already demonstrating their willingness to welcome people to this country but just need some tips on how to do it. A welcoming gesture might be as simple as going over to say 'hello' to a family who have moved in next door or in the neighbourhood and finding out a little bit about them. It might be about asking a new classmate or colleague out for a coffee or a meal. It could be taking time to learn how to say 'hello' in another language. Whatever it is, you are sure to learn something new, make a friend and be better for the whole experience, because multiculturalism enriches us all. Whether through food, music, language or culture, there is always something new to discover or explore. Many people would remember the good neighbourhood councils that were set up after World War II, which helped newly arrived migrants and refugees settle into Australia, and this is very, very similar. Because of the debates that we are currently having on this particular issue, I think it is really important to ensure that Australia still is a welcoming country and that we get that message out to people. Welcome to Australia brings a fresh perspective to that goal by offering all Australians these sorts of practical tips on how to make simple but powerful gestures of welcome— (Time expired)