September 29, 2015
The South Burnett Regional Council will be advising the Federal Government the region is unwilling to accept Syrian refugees after an online poll showed 70 per cent of respondents were opposed to it.
The idea of taking in a small number of refugees was floated by South Burnett Mayor Wayne Kratzmann at a Council meeting on September 16.
The Mayor said the scale of the refugee crisis was something not seen since World War II, and he felt the South Burnett should do something to assist.
But he said Council would only lend its support to the idea if the majority of the community were in favour of it.
The Council then set up an online poll to gather community feedback, which closed on Friday.
Today the Mayor said the poll had drawn about 600 responses, with almost three-quarters opposed.
As a result, the South Burnett will not be joining neighbouring Western Downs and Toowoomba, where Mayors Ray Brown and Paul Antonio have said their own regions would be willing to accept some of Australia’s proposed 12,000 Syrian refugee intake.
The Mayor said there didn’t appear to be any appetite for assisting refugees in the region, though he was heartened that 30 per cent of poll respondents supported the idea.
He said there seemed to have been a bit of hysteria whipped up in some quarters over fears the region might be inundated with large numbers of refugees.
“In reality we might have had one to three refugee families at most,” the Mayor said.
“However, our residents have made their feelings clear and we will respect the wishes of the majority.”
Footnote: the South Burnett may be hosting some Syrian refugee families, anyway, if a plan by Catholic Archbishop Mark Coleridge comes to fruition.
The Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane has pledged to help resettle at least 100 refugee families from Syria, and Archbishop Coleridge has suggeste each parish help by taking in one Syrian family.
The South Burnett parishes of Murgon, Kingaroy and Nanango are all within the Brisbane Archdiocese.
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