Great delight
IT was with great delight that I read of the Northern Grampians Shire Council’s decision to join our neighbours Ararat Rural City Council and Horsham Rural City Council in becoming a refugee welcome zone.
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The Refugee Council of Australia notes that signing the aforementioned declaration can foster harmony and social cohesion in the community, promote appreciation of cultural diversity and, importantly, take a strong stand against racism and discrimination. With three months now having passed since the council declared their intention I am wondering why we are still not included on the list of Victorian councils who have demonstrated their commitment in spirit to welcoming refugees in the same way that we would welcome any other new arrival.
The motion was passed six votes to one.
If the council is concerned about community opinion, surely this would be an excellent time to start a conversation about the benefits of welcoming refugees to the region. There are many examples of the positive contributions made to Australia by refugees in the fields of medicine, science, engineering, sport and the arts.
For the economic benefits refugees can bring to rural areas in particular we need look no further than Nhill, where the refugee population has stimulated economic growth with increased need for goods and services and the creation of new employment opportunities.
There are a lot of myths circulating about the costs and negative impact of migration.
Yet the positive economic, social and cultural contribution of the 800,000 refugees who have settled in Australia since 1901 should not be underestimated.
I urge the Northern Grampians Shire Council to demonstrate compassion and benevolence by honouring their commitment to supporting the principles contained in the refugee welcome zone declaration.
CORRINE LEAHY
Stawell
Process accelerated
RICHARD Opie (Mail-Times, July 25) offers a reminder to Emma Kealy about the halt to funding for Horsham College.
Mr Opie needs a reminder that this see-saw of blame between the two parties that form governments in Australia is boring to all but the rusted-on supporters of the two.
Neither appears to have the fortitude to tackle the real reason why funding is treated like a yoyo while we the people are treated like mushrooms.
Ever since the Industrial Revolution began a little over two centuries ago, machines have been increasingly replacing human endeavour.
With the advent of technology about half a century ago and more recently its scion, robotics, the process has accelerated to the extent that human input is now almost unnecessary.
Take the movement of freight, for example.
Containerisation has meant that a large box that holds a thousand smaller boxes can now be moved by one man or woman with a huge lifting machine and placed on a transport to be moved between cities without the employment of much human endeavour to stack the thousand boxes on the transport.
The technology already exists to move that transport between cities without employing a human driver, thus saving the expense of wages and the parallel hazard of fatigue.
However, like computers 50 years ago, much fine tuning is needed. Make no mistake, such things will be common place in the years to come.
When unemployment reaches 20 per cent or so due to the above articulated process, welfare will take up the lion’s share of all taxation and the source of that taxation will have atrophied.
Where then will the funding for school redevelopment and roads that occupy so much of the mental processes of economists, the politicians who believe them and the Richard Opie’s of this state come from?
RON FISCHER
Horsham