Congratulations on your appointments as the Shadow Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Citizenship. How do you feel about these appointments? It’s a great honor Eduardo to be given these new positions as Shadow Minister for Immigration and Shadow Minister form multiculturalism and citizenship. These are really important portfolios, and I’ve done a lot of work since becoming a senator in 2019 building relationships with different stakeholders, different communities in Queensland in relation to these areas. And I think that gives me some really good foundations for making a positive, constructive contribution in these areas. So I’m absolutely delighted to have the opportunity.
Eduardo Jordan
The election has passed. The LNP has a new team. How do you see your party’s team with Sussan Ley as the opposition leader?
Senator Scarr
It is quite an historic moment for the Liberal Party to have Sussan Ley as our leader. Sussan is the first woman to actually lead the parliamentary liberal team. So that’s quite a historic event. Also, I think Sussan brings to the role a very considered and measured approach. And Sussan has made it very clear that given the election result, the coalition needs to spend time getting out into the community, listening to people, getting feedback from people, considering the policies which we took to the last election, reviewing those policies, and then being a constructive opposition. And I consider that to be really important, especially in the portfolios which I’ve been given.
Eduardo Jordan
This week is Refugee Week, and this year’s topic is Finding Freedom. Australia has settled around 950,000 refugees since World War Two, which is like an outstanding number. Can Australia help on sending more refugees finding freedom at this point?
Senator Scarr
Eduardo, I think Australia should always have as part of its immigration program humanitarian visas and an intake of refugees. This has always been part of our immigration program. Since World War Two, as you said, 950,000 people have settled in into Australia. So I think this is an important part of who we are as a country, and I will certainly be doing whatever I can to promote refugee week. And from my perspective, Eduardo, it’s about telling the positive stories of that influx of refugees since World War Two, and how they’ve made such a great contribution to our country. So people who came from Europe after the devastation of World War Two and helped on the Snowy Hydro scheme, for example, which was a nation building project, people who came from Vietnam after the fall of Saigon in 1975 and have built lives in Australia and whose children are now doctors and lawyers and entrepreneurs. It’s about telling those positive stories, and that’s something which I’ll be looking to do during the course of refugee week.
Eduardo Jordan
As you mentioned, the refugee community has contributed a lot to the Australian community during your time as a senator. What are some of the big achievements you’ve seen from migrants with a refugee background?
Senator Scarr
Eduardo, how long do we have is this program going on all day? 24 hours? I could tell you so many stories. I could tell you so many stories. Eduarda, one of the things that really I remember was attending the Vietnamese Tet Festival, the Vietnamese New Year festival, and speaking to someone there whose grandson was the recipients of one of the academic awards. So the Vietnamese community, Queensland, Vietnamese community, actually recognizes high academic performers at the festival, which I think is just tremendous. And I was talking to this grandmother about her grandchild who received one of these awards, and I said, Well, what are they doing next year? And she said, Well, they’re going to become an accountant, because in the family so far, we have so many doctors, so many dentists, so many this and that, but we don’t have an accountant, so we’re going to have an accountant. That’s it. That’s just one story of the value which so many of our refugee communities bring to Australia. And I could tell you countless stories. I’m so amazed actually, at how quickly people who come to Australia with a refugee background get jobs, build up some capital and then start their own business, because so many people with a refugee background have such great resilience. They bring with them a determination to make the most of the opportunities in this country. And I see it time and time again. It really does inspire me
Eduardo Jordan
Absolutely. I spoke with the Victorian Multicultural Commissioner. Her name is Lizzie, and she mentioned that she was from South Sudan. Now she’s a commissioner, and all the things that she’s done for building herself here, alive, a fresh life, and you know, better opportunities for her, it’s just outstanding. So you are absolutely right on how refugees have that resilience.
Senator Scarr
And also Eduardo giving back to the community. So some of the stories I’m going to tell next week are about people of refugee backgrounds who have built successful lives here in Australia, in work, in career, raising their family, but then also giving back to the community. And again, I see that time and time again, and it’s so inspirational. So we’ve got to tell those stories. We’ve got to celebrate that success. I think that’s an important part of refugee week,
Eduardo Jordan
Now, with a lot of conflict across the world, what else can Australia do to help and achieve solutions across these conflicts, not just to minimize the influx of refugees, but also to celebrate this particular sector.
Senator Scarr
Well, I think Australia is generous in terms of the aid which we provide, especially in our own region, in this the Pacific region. So I think there is that aid is is very important. How we contribute to world efforts and help people in need across the world. We can also use our voice as a middle power, our diplomatic voice in terms of being constructive, in terms of being seen as a very successful democracy who is trusted, I believe, by many parties and peoples around the world. So there are other opportunities in that respect, where we can, we can play a constructive role on the international stage, and we should look, look for those opportunities, and do what we can, because we do have that standing in the world community.
Eduardo Jordan
From a community perspective, what can we do to understand more the journey of refugees linked to another country, what do you think?
Senator Scarr
Tell the stories. Tell the stories, and humanize the stories. So we talk about people as individuals and their families as individual family units. I think that’s so important to hear the stories. And so many of these stories are inspirational. And I think it’s one thing to talk about refugees as as a group, as a, as a, as a category, as a number in the spreadsheet of our migration policy with skilled migrants, etc, etc, but it’s another thing to actually hear the stories and understand the stories and understand what families have gone through. And I think that’s so important. One of the things that moves me Eduardo, and I’ve heard it over the course of the last week, talking to people of who came to Australia as refugees and have built successful lives here. One of the things that really moves me is the number of examples I see where everyday Australians have reached out to a refugee who they’ve met. In some contexts, it could be a train station, it could be at a church, wherever it is, and have provided such assistance to that person and their family on a human to human level. And I think we’ve got to understand that, that we’re talking about individual, families, people, they have their own lived experiences, their own backgrounds, and we got to respect that, and tell those stories and celebrate success. Celebrate success, when, when so many of the people have come to these this country since World War Two, part of that, 950,000 have set up huge businesses employed 1000s of Australians have become doctors, have become researchers, have helped in the arts in so many different ways, and we got to celebrate those stories. I think that’s crucially important.
Eduardo Jordan
What would you like to tell our listeners about refugee week? What would you like to tell them about next week?
Senator Scarr
Well, it’s a very important week that we celebrate the contribution Australia has made to helping people subject to persecution, wherever in the world. And Australia has a long and a very proud history in terms of helping people in need who have been subject of persecution, and the results of that have been that we’ve had the benefit of as a country, of welcoming people as refugees, and then those refugees giving back to our community and becoming part of the Australian Story. For example, this year is the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, which triggered a mass exodus of people from Vietnam 50 years later, let’s reflect on the contribution made by a wonderful Australian Vietnamese community in so many different ways to this country. And I think this is the week where we reflect on that, and this is also the week where we hear those stories on an individual level, on a family unit level, on people’s journeys, when they’ve left countries, they’ve had to flee persecution in their country of origin, and they’ve found a home in Australia, and how much it means to them, and how much people have given back to this country in return.
Eduardo Jordan
Fantastic Shadow Minister for Multicultural Affairs. Paul Scar, is there anything else you would like to add?
Senator Scarr
No Eduardo, I’d just like to thank you and your team. I think multicultural radio, multicultural media is so important. It’s so important to keep people connected. And as you know, I’ve been a frequent visitor to Radio 4EB, and I’m looking forward to going around at Australia and meeting other people in multicultural media. I think it’s it’s so important for us as a country to have opportunities for people of different backgrounds to get the news, to hear their own language, and to stay connected, to stay connected to those wonderful diaspora communities we have all over Australia, but also to what’s happening that’s a particular concern to them.
