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.
