September 16, 2015
The South Burnett should seriously consider offering to take in some Syrian refugees, Mayor Wayne Kratzmann said today.
But the SBRC will only lend its support to the idea if the majority of the community support it.
Mayor Kratzmann brought up the issue at Wednesday’s Council meeting after delivering his portfolio report.
He said the scale of the Syrian refugee crisis was something not seen since World War II, and he felt the region should do something to assist.
On Friday, Western Downs Mayor Ray Brown proposed his own region could resettle 1500 refugees across 500 vacant rental properties in Dalby, Chinchilla, Miles, Wandoan and Tara.
Mayor Brown’s offer was announced by Deputy Premier Jackie Trad at a candlelight vigil attended by 3000 people in Brisbane on Friday night in support of refugees.
On Monday, he was joined by Toowoomba Mayor Paul Antonio, who said his own region would also be willing to play its part in resettling some of the 12,000 Syrian refugees set to enter Australia.
Support for refugees would be paid for by the Federal Government, so resettling Syrian families would not put any strain on community resources.
Mayor Kratzmann said he didn’t agree with Mayor Brown’s approach of setting a specific target but he did think the South Burnett had the capacity to take in at least some refugee families, too.
But he was aware there were likely to be differing views within the community, so he wanted community feedback on the issue first.
Cr Barry Green said he supported the Mayor’s idea.
“I challenge anyone to look on TV at the people trying to get through the fence in Hungary and imagine that one of them was your mother,” Cr Green said.
“That will change anyone’s mind.”
Cr Green said that apart from humanitarian assistance, he was in favour of taking in refugees for two other reasons.
“One is that acceptance and assimilation are only a generation away,” Cr Green said.
“When I was young – a long time ago – Australia took in boatloads of Italians and Greeks and there was a lot of community unrest about it at the time.
“But would any of us not want that Italian and Greek influence in our culture today?
“The same applies to the Filipinos and the Vietnamese. All it takes is a generation.”
Cr Green said a second reason he was in favour of the idea was that it would provide a quick boost to the region’s population.
“We know that one of our biggest problems is that we don’t have enough people here,” he said.
“To keep rates down and get more economic development happening we need to bump our population up to 40,000 or 50,000.”
“This would be a good way to help that process along.”
The Council will now seek community opinion on the question.
South Burnett residents are invited to register their opinions via a short survey on Council’s website or have their say via a link which will be on the Council’s Facebook page from noon Thursday, September 17.
Printed surveys will also be available at Customer Service Centres and at libraries.
While I don’t agree with some of the comments made by the Councillors in the article, I will save my thoughts and provide them to Council when appropriate.
Please please take them in
WHY NOT RENT THE VACANT PROPERTIES TO OUR LOCALS, I know of several single parents who need housing I myself have a son and his girlfriend and a daughter with a child living at my place because they can’t find a rental, pity these politicians can’t look in their own backyard and now the grass, before making it even harder for our own kids to get ahead.
NO! Simple as that NO. I have lived in two regional towns where Middle Eastern refugees were relocated. They simply refused to assimilate. The first thing they wanted to know was how to access benefits, how to access free schooling and how to access free health care. They were not interested in English classes or looking for work. Now there numbers are growing faster than the local schools can cope with as the women are all required to have 7 children each.
Now in Bendigo they are demanding a Mosque. In Shepparton, they got the mosque then came the school, now a nursing home. Locals too scared to walk the street for the verbal abuse aimed as them, or at night the growing no go zones where locals fear being knifed.
I was in Grand Central the other day and a Muslim walked past dressed from head to foot in black with only eyes visible, walking the required several steps behind her husband. Is this what we want out children to grow up thinking is normal?? That women are inferior to men??
If we travel to the Middle East we are expected to cover up out of respect for their traditions. Well how about uncovering to respect our way of life? They will start demanding our kindys don’t have Christmas carols as it offends them, that they can’t sing nursery rhymes as it offends them. the list just goes on.
They will demand we sell Halal food, then they want Sharia law not Australian law.
I have lived in these towns where refugees were taken in by caring locals only to have all the help thrown back at them as not good enough. PLEASE DON’T BRING THEM HERE TO OUR BEAUTIFUL TOWN.
Totally agree with you Willow. Unless you have actually lived in an area that has experienced a progressively high influx of Muslim ‘refugees’ you cannot possibly imagine what it’s like to no longer feel a part of a close and caring community you had grown up in and previously loved. I would advise those wishing to open their hearts and homes to these folk to think carefully.
Willow – Albanian Muslims built the first mosque in Shepparton 1960, and first mosque in Australia was built in 1861 at Marree, South Australia. The Great Mosque of Adelaide was built in 1888 by the descendants of the Afghan cameleers.
During the 1870s, Muslim Malay divers were recruited through an agreement with the Dutch to work on Western Australian and Northern Territory pearling grounds. By 1875, there were 1800 Malay divers working in Western Australia. Most returned to their home countries. One of the earliest recorded Islamic festivals celebrated in Australia occurred on 23 July 1884 when 70 Muslims assembled for Eid prayers at Albert Park in Melbourne
Larger-scale Muslim migration began in 1975 with the migration of Lebanese Muslims, which rapidly increased during the Lebanese Civil War from 22,311 or 0.17% of the Australian population in 1971, to 45,200 or 0.33% in 1976. Lebanese Muslims are still the largest and highest-profile Muslim group in Australia, although Lebanese Christians form a majority of Lebanese Australians, outnumbering their Muslim counterparts at a 6-to-4 ratio. By the beginning of the 21st century, Muslims from more than sixty countries had settled in Australia. While a very large number of them come from Bosnia, Turkey, and Lebanon, there are Muslims from Indonesia, Malaysia, Iran, Fiji, Albania, Sudan, Somalia, Egypt, the Palestinian territories, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Never thought I’d do this, but can I support and add to what Jack says?
Islam is Australia’s fourth largest religious grouping – after Christianity, irreligion, and Buddhism – and now accounts for 2.2% of the country’s population (according to the 2011 census). So when you disrespect it you’re disrespecting every 50th person you run into.
And this is just hateful because we have some great Muslims living and working in the South Burnett right now who make important contributions to our community (I won’t embarrass them by naming them, but they know who they are and so do hundreds, and possibly thousands, of others).
And if you think Muslims don’t mix, here are 15 dinki-di Muslims that might make you change your mind:
I might add that Bob Katter’s grand-dad emigrated from Lebanon (though in that case he was a Maronite Catholic). Guess you can’t have everything…
By now most readers may be a little confused as to the stance I have taken on refugees. I ask only as Australians we look beyond the restraints of race and religious intolerance to a war that has displaced millions and taken the lives of hundreds and thousands of people, mostly non-combatants. To those bar-stool generals and there devoted minions I say, take battle if you will to those that take arms against humanity but in doing so extend humanity to those that seek refuge in peace. It’s human nature to shape ones thoughts to the winds of war, but by far the greatest battle mankind can make is the battle for peace. Rod, thank you for your support.
Do people opposed to this idea really believe that the two to six Syrian refugee families that would likely be allowed to settle here would swamp our culture, create ethnic ghettos, take all our jobs, institute a massive crime wave and make women walk the streets in fear? We are not a capital city and regional areas will only get handfuls of refugees, not thousands.
If there is a concern about jobs maybe just maybe those that can work will be spurred enough to get a job, get off their behinds and do something positive instead of blaming others. It doesn’t take much but these people will DO the work that local-born people think as below them and also these people work together as a family, achieving while others are left wondering how they did it. It’s a yes from me with conditions – play up against our laws and the privilege is taken away.