Port Phillip Council to spend $10k on town hall banners welcoming refugees

A COUNCIL will spend $10,000 on banners to hang outside South Melbourne, Port Melbourne and St Kilda town halls welcoming refugees in the wake of the Manus Island detention centre crisis.

Port Phillip Council will erect banners welcoming refugees at its three town halls. File photo

PORT Phillip Council will spend about $10,000 to hang banners outside its town halls welcoming refugees.

The move comes amid the “humanitarian crisis” at the Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea.

Asylum seekers resist leaving Manus Island detention centre, prompting fears of violence

Councillor Ogy Simic, who came to Australia as a refugee from Sarajevo, moved the urgent motion last night, calling for the council to urge for the “immediate evacuation to Australia of the roughly 600 remaining residents with no safe place to go”.

The motion also called on the council to commit to working with local settlement services to support new arrivals in the area and fly “Refugees Welcome Here” banners to show support for asylum seekers.

“As someone who travelled to Australia as a refugee and was offered unprecedented opportunities, I could not in good conscience stay silent on what was happening in the Manus Island detention centre,” Cr Simic said.

“We have people living in fear of their lives and safety — they have had their food, water and electricity cut off and medicines cut.

“What is happening on Manus are atrocities in the name of all Australians.

“Offering our protection to these people is a sign of strength, not weakness.”

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Cr Tim Baxter said the Manus Island crisis was “a stain on our nation’s character”.

Cr Dick Gross you “only had to shake hard enough” and everyone’s family tree would reveal a refugee story.

“Port Phillip Council has a tradition of welcoming people here, whether they have intact or lawful documentation or not,” he said.

The council has already made its feelings on same-sex marriage known, lighting up the St Kilda Town Hall.

Cr David Brand said there was community expectation for the council to “step up and express publicly” its views on the issue, given it had signed up as a ‘Refugee Welcome Zone’.

“A sizeable majority (of people in Port Phillip) would want their council to advocate on this issue,” he said.

The council’s community development general manager Carol Jeffs told the meeting having banners made and put up at South Melbourne, Port Melbourne and St Kilda town halls would cost about $10,000.

Cr Marcus Pearl said the events on Manus Island were a Federal Government issue and not something that should be debated in a council chamber.

“Nobody sitting here tonight wants people in detention centres, nobody wants people risking their lives in leaky boats but I don’t think what is proposed in this motion will do anything for the people it seeks to help,” he said.

The banners will be put up within two weeks after the motion was passed 6-3 last night.