Walla residents want to investigate resettling refugees in the town and will ask Greater Hume Council for their support on Wednesday night.
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About 70 people backed the idea at a forum on March 6 and the NSW co-ordinator general for refugee resettlement Peter Shergold has offered his assistance.
Andrew Kotzur, among a group of 10 residents driving the push, said talks had been ongoing for 12 months.
“There’s probably three key reasons it came together – the first would be a number of people in the community share compassion for refugees who have been misplaced,” he said.
“We also see this as an opportunity to grow our community, and its diversity.
“The third reason is a number of local businesses can’t fill positions and you don’t have to drive very far through rural Australia to see it’s not necessarily just refugees, but people new to the country, who are driving activity in the bush.
“If everything goes as we’d hope, in the next four to five months we’ll have a plan to promote the community to some of the refugees looking for secondary resettlement.”
Mr Kotzur said there were a range of government funding avenues, but the first priority was to understand what the community would need to cater for refugees.
Professor Shergold, responding to a letter from Mr Kotzur, said more than 11,000 refugees were settled across NSW in 2017.
“My objective is to help more refugees take advantage of the opportunities that exist outside of our major cities,” he wrote.
“I commend Walla Walla’s initiative to explore a refugee attraction strategy.
“The refugee settlement team at Multicultural NSW will continue to support you … when the time comes, they can also assist you to connect with interested refugees in Sydney.”
General manager Steven Pinnuck will put to Wednesday’s meeting at Bungowannah that council should give in-principle support.
He has also recommended council establish an advisory committee “to provide legal status for proponents of the initiative”.
At least 20 people in Walla have already indicated willingness to participate in such a working group.