Communities to focus on refugee settlement
29 June 2009
Extensive community consultations are about to begin that will further improve Australia's refugee settlement services, the Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs and Settlement Services, Laurie Ferguson, said today.
The consultations will assist the development of the tender for the Integrated Humanitarian Settlement Strategy. The tender is for about $62 million in services annually.
'Consultations will focus on services that are delivered when refugees first arrive in Australia, such as orientation, health services, torture and trauma counselling, accommodation assistance and information and referrals,' Mr Ferguson said.
'I am keen to look at how we can best support refugees to transition to their new country and learn about their new home.
'By obtaining feedback from community organisations, other interested parties and refugees themselves, the consultation process will help us to improve and strengthen the support services.
'Australia is consistently ranked in the world's top refugee resettlement countries, and we should feel proud of how much we contribute to international efforts to make many people's lives more secure.'
The Refugee Settlement Advisory Council met yesterday to discuss the issues. The consultation process will run from today until August 12 in all capital cities and some regional locations.
'This will be an extremely valuable process, which will doubtless unearth many ideas and suggestions destined to further improve Australia's settlement services,' Mr Ferguson said.
People unable to attend the consultations are welcome to provide written
feedback on the IHSS discussion paper through the DIAC website.
See: www.immi.gov.au/about/contracts-tenders-submissions/
Media contact: Carla Wilshire 0432 755 935
URL: http://www.minister.immi.gov.au
/parlsec/media/media-releases/2009/lf09036.htm
Last update: 29 June 2009 at 09:33 AEST