Brimbank council, local health and social welfare agencies and community groups should start thinking about how they can help refugees escaping Syria, Kororoit MP Marlene Kairouz says.
In State Parliament late last month, Ms Kairouz said Victoria had a role to play in rehousing refugees and would “stand ready to do the right thing”.
She said the government needed to work with councils and other agencies amid reports that Victoria could receive 4000 refugees.
“I think every local government has a role to play,” she said.
“They [Brimbank council] could provide housing services; it’s about integration.”
Community wellbeing director Neil Whiteside said the council had not discussed the issue with any other level of government.
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Ms Kairouz added: “Councils are able to assist … they should start thinking about what they can do. You don’t just wait to be invited. Everybody has a role to play.
“It shouldn’t be one agency’s or one person’s responsibility.”
Ms Kairouz, the daughter of Lebanese migrants who fled the nation’s civil war in the 1970s, said she had a strong interest in how refugees and migrants were resettled.
“I’m a daughter of migrants; my mum and dad came out as a very young couple in the ’70s to Australia,” she said. “They had to work very hard and they endured a lot of hardship. They knew the war was going to break in Lebanon and they made the right call.
“My mum was 16, my dad 22.
“Can you imagine leaving everything behind – your family and your friends – risking your life and your children’s lives for a better life?
“I think, as human beings, we all have an obligation to assist. We’re fortunate enough to be able to do that,” she said.
“That little boy found on the shore of Turkey, that image stuck in my mind for days. I have a niece who was his age and a little nephew who’s one.
“And I thought, this could happen to anyone,” Ms Kairouz said.
“Apart from indigenous people, we’re all the children of migrants.”
Mr Whiteside said Brimbank was one of the first councils to have developed a settlement action plan.
He said last year the council had been part of the Western Metropolitan Regional Management Forum, which developed ‘B-pass’, a local guide for asylum seekers and detailing other resettlement services.
