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Category: Refugees / Regional Development / Regional / Immigration

Deputy Prime Minister backs refugee resettlement in regional Australia

Tuesday, 6 Dec 2016 08:49:07

Renata Ntihabose was among the first refugees to arrive in Mingoola. (ABC News)

The Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, has offered support for the rollout of more refugee programs in regional areas.

Mr Joyce wants the refugee resettlement model trialled in northern New South Wales to be replicated in other country towns.

It follows a recent Australian Story episode on the town of Mingoola, on the New South Wales-Queensland border, where the arrival of three African refugee families is being credited with reviving the community.

The resettlement led to the local school re-opening, and enough people to help with the harvest.

Mr Joyce said his office had been inundated with calls from across Australia to implement the program elsewhere.

"I'm certainly going to convey it through to the Immigration Minister because, and I have had these discussions in the past as well, regional areas are only too willing to take refugees," Mr Joyce said.

"There are regional areas such as Mingoola which welcome them and in fact they want them.

Mr Joyce said while he would advocate for the model, he would not legislate the policy.

"That's exactly what happened in Mingoola but you can't demand people to go to a certain area, you can't under current legislation, and I probably wouldn't want to do that," he said.

"I do like the idea though; it's better if people go to regional areas because there's better capacity to fit into the community."

National Farmers' Federation to pilot refugee program

The National Farmers' Federation (NFF) plans to roll out a similar program in the next 12 months, with Armidale, in northern New South Wales, flagged as an ideal town to host it.

The voluntary program is being developed by the NFF along with the Migration Council.

The Federation's Sarah McKinnon said the Northern Tablelands city had been identified for a number of reasons.

"Areas where there's a lot of rural and regional opportunity and there's good infrastructures and services there," Ms McKinnon said.

"In many of these towns there are already established refugee populations.

"They're the kind of towns that we're looking to begin the pilot because we want to give it the best chance of success."

Other towns considered by the NFF to successfully implement the pilot model are Wagga Wagga in New South Wales and Toowoomba in Queensland.

AustraliaPlus


 

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