ABC Central Victoria 
By Mark Kearney

Resettling refugees from South-East Asia has proven a boon for one regional Victorian economy.

That is the key finding of a new study into the impact of Karen refugees on Bendigo, 150 kilometres north of Melbourne.

Karen people are an ethnic minority from Myanmar, tens of thousands of whom live in refugee camps on the country's border with Thailand.

Those not born into camps worked as subsistence farmers in small mountain villages in the region.

Since 2007, when the first family of Karen refugees arrived in Bendigo, their community has grown to about 1,000.

The most recent census in 2016 found Karen was the second most commonly spoken language in Bendigo.

The new study from Deloitte Access Economics and Adult Multicultural Education Services (AMES) Australia estimated the Karen community has contributed $67.1 million to the Bendigo economy.

The study also found 177 full-time equivalent positions were created for Karen workers.
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AMES Australia chief executive Cath Scarth said the study's results were an endorsement of regional refugee resettlement.

​"When well-facilitated, it can make a significant contribution to the economic as well as the cultural-social fabric of regional communities," Ms Scarth said.

​Refugees diligent, loyal

Bendigo poultry producer Hazeldene's is the single largest employer of Karen people in Bendigo, with about 120 of the refugee community on staff.

The company's Ann Conway described the Karen workers as loyal and hardworking.

"Diverse demographics are very good because from an organisational, cultural perspective, having the diversity provides greater motivation," Ms Conway said.

"The different cultures within the workforce seem to feed off one another, and there's been some really good relationships built across the various nationalities."

​Ms Conway said while language barriers persisted, several Karen staff were paid to act as translators, while social services in Bendigo also offered support.

Loddon Campaspe Multicultural Services (LCMS) is one of those sources of support in Bendigo for new arrivals.

Executive officer Kate McInnes said refugee resettlement had transformed the Bendigo community, as well as its economy.

The change is significant for the Bendigo local government area, which was considered the country's least culturally diverse at the time of the 2011 census.
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"I love that we can be living in a regional setting but have that cultural diversity where [my children] get to mix with people from all over world. They get to experience festivals from all over the world," Ms McInnes said.
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​Breaking down barriers

​Increased ethnic diversity in Bendigo has also meant more religious diversity; a Buddhist monastery now operates in Bendigo, while a local Baptist church offers regular services in the Karen language.
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Ms McInnes said the burgeoning refugee community had been instrumental in breaking down religious tensions, the sort that fuelled protests against plans for a Bendigo mosque in 2015.

"We have seen some ugly protests from a section of the community that are not very welcoming," Ms McInnes said.

​"One dinner or one barbecue or one cup of tea can change people's attitudes, because people haven't had that opportunity previously to meet anyone who's come to Australia as a refugee."
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​A new lease on life

​Eleven years ago, Bu Gay Pha Thei's family were the first Karen people to settle in Bendigo, and she has since become one of the first in her community to complete university.

A nursing graduate, Ms Pha Thei now works with LCMS as a community development worker.

The 24-year-old said she was proud of her community for its progress, considering how difficult it was in the months and years following their arrival.
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"We [didn't] have another Karen family we could go visit on the weekend," she said.

"It was very hard to communicate, very hard to go shopping, very to go out for socialising."

​Ms Pha Thei identified care for ageing Karen people as a challenge that still needed addressing.

"We need to give them a lot of support around finding services," she said, adding that learning English was another hurdle for the elderly.
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"Young people are doing fine because they're studying at school, they have their teachers to give them a hand."


FOR FULL STORY CLICK THE LINK BELOW:
www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-25/karen-refugees-boost-bendigo-economy/10299948

​By Ashlynne McGhee

Former senior immigration officials have spoken out against Peter Dutton's decision to free two foreign nannies from immigration detention.

French au pair Alexandra Deuwel was freed in October 2015, after her prospective employer's cousin, AFL boss Gillon McLachlan, requested Mr Dutton's assistance.

​A few months earlier, Mr Dutton ordered Italian nanny Michela Marchisio be released, after lobbying from her proposed boss, a policeman Mr Dutton worked with in Queensland.

Viviana Barrio worked for the Immigration Department for 23 years, including three years in charge of immigration at Melbourne Airport, where she regularly detained tourists she suspected would try to work.

​"In 23 years, I've never seen a minister grant a tourist visa to an au pair," she told 7.30.

​"A minister should not be intervening in these kinds of cases. Intervention powers are very valuable.

"It's a lack of respect for the system that allows for compassionate circumstances in very extreme cases, not these kinds of cases."

Ms Barrio also spent five years in charge of ministerial intervention cases for three states.

"I decided to talk to you because I feel that the public is being told that these cases are similar to the other cases … but these cases are not like any other one," she said.

"They're quite different."

​'Impartiality guidelines don't seem to apply to ministers'
Until last year, Greg Phillipson was a senior lawyer in the Immigration Department, where he served for nearly 40 years.

​"It would be quite unusual for the minister to intervene [in tourist matters] because normally the worst that can happen is that the person's visit to Australia is cut short and they go home," he told 7.30.

​He said if Mr Dutton was a departmental official, he would not have been able to decide the cases because of a perceived conflict of interest.

​"The usual situation is you declare the interest and you say it's not appropriate for me to make this decision because I know these people," Mr Phillipson said.

"It seems like these sort of impartiality guidelines don't seem to apply to ministers."

Mr Dutton declined to be interviewed for this story, but said in a statement each case was considered on its merits.
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"There are long-standing intervention powers provided to ministers under the Migration Act. Any person is able to request ministerial intervention," he said in the statement.

​"I have never met the individuals involved in one of these cases and in the other I worked with one individual in my former career as a police officer 20 years ago. To suggest that I have any personal connection or relationship in either case is false and misleading."

​Dutton unlikely to appear at Senate investigation
A Labor-led Senate inquiry is investigating Mr Dutton's decisions and holding its first hearing today.

It has requested Mr Dutton and his staff appear, but he is not compelled and his name does not appear on the witness list.

​Mr Dutton's office declined to comment on whether he would attend.

Senior immigration officials will be answering questions, as will the AFL's McLachlan and his head of government relations, Jude Donnelly, who emailed Mr Dutton's office.

Labor senator Kimberley Kitching said Mr Dutton needed to explain.

"I think until he does, there will be people questioning his integrity," she told 7.30.

"We have invited him, we are still waiting for him to respond.

"We have asked the relevant staff in his office to come. They haven't responded either."

FOR FULL STORY PLEASE CLICK THE LINK BELOW:
www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-04/immigration-insiders-slam-peter-duttons-au-pair-interventions/10200990