Wagga Mayor Greg Conkey said the city was declared a Refugee Welcome Zone in 2012, and this week’s motion further strengthens support. 

At its meeting on Monday night, council voted to encourage the federal government to expand and improve their community sponsorship program for refugees. 

“Sixty per cent of our new residents in this city, in the last five years, come from overseas,” he said. 

“We believe for us to grow to 100,000 people we need more industry and more people. 

“If 60 per cent of our new residents have been born overseas, we need to continue with welcoming them.” 

Community sponsorship is a model where ordinary members of the community are able to sponsor visas for refugees, who wish to begin the process of rebuilding their lives in safety in Australia.

The decision followed Amnesty International approaching the mayors of the Riverina Regional Cities group to support the motion to encourage the Federal Government. 

Shankar Kasynathan, refugee campaigner at Amnesty International Australia, said it was a fantastic show of support for welcoming refugees.

“Amnesty International is so grateful to have three councils joining together to get behind expanding this neighbourhood-led solution to the global refugee crisis,” he said. 

​“Every day communities around Australia welcome new neighbours into their neighbourhoods. 

“Sometimes those new neighbours are refugees and the role councils play in welcoming them so that they can rebuild their lives in safety is crucial, so it’s fantastic to see these councils step up with the passing of these motions.”

Councillor Conkey said supporting this would reaffirm that Wagga is a community that welcomes refugees. 

“We are proud of the diversity in our city,” he said.

“Last year for the Fusion festival in October we attracted more than 14,000 attendees. 

“We hope to attract to similar numbers this year.” 

Councillor Paul Funnell told the meeting that it was very important for people to recognise Wagga has an enormous number of refugees. 

“To go into some of these homes and see what they have, or what they don’t have,” he said.

“Despite what the media and what other people say about them getting handouts, to go in and see a family sitting there with one mattress among them...is very humbling.”

Councillor Funnell said while he was proud of Australians, he thought they could stand to learn a lot from refugees. 

“After all this nation was built by migrants,” he said. 

Wagga was not the only one to commit to the cause with Albury Council and Wodonga Council simultaneously passing motions in support of expanding and improving the Australian Government’s current refugee community sponsorship program.