REFUGEES SHOULD BE SEEN AS ASSETS, NOT LIABILITIES, SAYS STOKES
Pilita Clark
Sydney Morning Herald, 27 October 2001.

The chairman of the Seven Network, Kerry Stokes, last night said refugees and migrants should not be regarded as liabilities but as Australians making important contributions to the nation.

Mr Stokes, who was delivering the annual Andrew Olle media lecture, called on journalists and political leaders to come up with ways of raising the level of rational debate in the "climate of outrage" created by the September 11 terrorist attacks.

"Having made the decision that were going to be a multi-racial, multi-religious society, we have no choice but to make it work," he said.

Mr Stokes said he had gone to a Perth wedding last Saturday of a young man whose Vietnamese mother had fled to Australia 22 years ago and had since scrimped to buy a house with cash and send her two sons to university.

The brides family, he said had also migrated to Australia. She and a brother were doctors "caring for the people of Perth."

"The importance of this story is that 20 years ago we regarded the Vietnamese refugees as liabilities." Mr Stokes said. "Two decades on, they represent an important part of the future of this country."

Mr Stokes did not specifically mention the Tampa boat people, but he did say: "Its worth noting that these Vietnamese refugees were of a different time, a different age. All borders surrounding their country were closed. Their only choice, apart from boats, was Cambodia. And the second family in this story came here 13 years ago, as legitimate immigrants in their own right."

It was up to the media and politicians to help lift the level of public debate by, for example, creating more forums where important issues could be discussed.

One way to do this was to introduce a sort of annual general meeting for politicians, similar to the one he chaired yesterday for his own Seven network.

"I was held accountable to my shareholders who elected their directors," he said of his own AGM. "I addressed them, reviewed the year, talked about the company and its opportunities and what we can expect for the rest of the year, answered their questions, while they were able to observe the questions posed by media and analysts.

Its a process that works. Why shouldnt we expect our elected officials to be held accountable in the same way and by the people who elected them? The importance is what is between elections."

Journalists should "become part of the solution" by helping to set up local meetings and host or mediate public debates.