Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At 11 o'clock this morning I went out the front of Parliament House to meet a young man, Rohullah Hussaini. Rohullah is from a Hazara background, and he had ridden a bicycle from Swan Hill via Melbourne and Sydney, some 2,000 kilometres into Canberra, with a petition in his hand arguing for a more humane treatment of refugees.

Rohullah himself fled Afghanistan when he was 14 years old, travelled from Indonesia to Australia by boat and was picked up by the Navy in 2012. Official recognition of his refugee status came in June this year. He is an extraordinary young man who went out to Swan Hill very early on. He is a landscape gardener, and he is well and truly building a new life. For the last few weeks he has been meeting people one by one and talking to them about what it is to be a refugee and why this nation should have a more generous approach to people who are fleeing persecution. In his words: 'I wanted to show people that I am a refugee, I am from Afghanistan and they don't need to be scared of me.' Well, Rohullah, your commitment to helping others and your tenacity and strength over the last few weeks are not scary, but they are impressive, and we should be very proud to have you among us.

The Hazaras have been persecuted for centuries. They have travelled from one country to another, but I know that this is the last country for this particular Hazara, Rohullah Hussaini, and his family.