A stroll before dinner brought us to a corner.

This quietly spoken man walking his bike started a conversation. In very broken English, he told us that his family loved the peace in Mildura, and that Australia is a great place.

“City has bad people,” was delivered with much hand waving.

“Mildura, good for my family, new life.”

We gathered that he was Shia, but there were others who were “bad people”. 

“Law very bad in Iran, Australia very good,” he added, with the last phrase fitting into several parts of this conversation.

He was very hard to understand, but finally he made it clear that he needed to speak better English. He found it hard to get a job without English, so he talked to people. By talking he was learning English.

In Mildura he had volunteered to work at the St Vincent de Paul store. He volunteered “to cook the eggs” at community breakfasts. 

However, it was the “bad people” part that has stuck in my mind.

He had escaped to Australia to get away from the “bad people”.

The Australian government was letting “bad people” come to Australia.

They came to Australia to make life hard for refugees that had escaped their homeland. 

The latest shootings in western Sydney indicate clearly that our screening is failing.

The “bad people” are here. The area with the most new pistol licences issued is Auburn in Sydney, where recent migrants claim they need the guns for their own protection.

Are we inviting religious refugees such as Christians, Yazidis, Bahais, and ethnic groups such as Kurds, to come to Australia to live a new and happy life, but through lax screening procedures also letting in their tormentors? 

Before we accept any refugee, we need to ask one vital question: Do you want to be an Australian?

We need to explain that being Australian means accepting religious freedom, and accepting separation of church and state. It means accepting women as equals.

In our society women vote, and women do not need their husband’s permission to dress, or mix with people outside their faith or ethnic group.

Being Australian means no child brides, no forced marriages.

It means access to education, and to work, and driving a car, without requiring permission from family or religious leaders. It means freedom to worship, or not worship.

It also means learning English and mixing freely with the Australian community, which I gathered was what that Mildura gentleman was trying hard to do.

I checked with TAFE in Wagga, and there are Adult Migrant English Programs conducted across the Riverina. If you have a friend who would benefit, phone TAFE on 1300 138 318.