Orange Refugee Week 2008

It was my pleasure to offer a Civic welcome to all the people who attended the celebration of Refugee week here in Orange. The Theme was "a place to call home".
Whilst Refugee week celebrations have been held in the past this is the third consecutive year for Refugee celebrations at the Orange City Council complex. Here at Council we are very proud to be involved with this most important day, particularly as Refugee Day and Refugee Week are now combined at this time in June.
A refugee is someone who is outside their own country and who cannot return due to a well-founded fear of persecution. This may be because of their race, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.
Australia is privileged to take in over 13,000 refugees every year. The countries of origin for these refugees varies, and is determined by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). The numbers have dramatically increased in the past few years, unfortunately, mostly due to civil unrest.
Currently the UNHCR helps over 32.9 million refugees and other uprooted civilians in similar circumstances in countries around the world. This has included significant increases in refugees from Uganda. Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq. The focus of refugees coming to Australia has altered somewhat in the past two years from a primary focus on Africa to one where middle eastern refugees are seeking and being accepted for refuge.
With a changing diversity in Orange we are thrilled to have residents from over fifty different language groups. This includes refugees who have chosen to make Orange their home, from at least five different countries. A recent change in population has been the secondary migration of refugee families and some of the newest Australian Citizens from Sydney of the Sudanese culture. We now also have over four language groups of Sudanese in Orange, and I was pleased to see so many of this community at the event.
I saw a lot of familiar faces from within our community and from the previous years event and I enjoyed the opportunity of meeting our local residents again. We were spoilt with food made by the multi cultural people who attended this event and what an array of different foods there was to choose from.
The Burralgang Aboriginal Dance group performed with the Glenroi Heights Public School and the Better Pathways Program to offer a Welcome Dance. The Australian Red Cross gave a presentation on the Refugee experience and there were the speakers who shared a story of their experience as refugee's now living in Orange.

Orange Chamber- Dinner meeting

As Orange City Council's representative I was able to attend Orange Chamber of Commerce dinner meeting held at Kelly's Hotel. The evening proceeded with the formalities of a committee meeting and then went on to several presentations.

The first presentation was being made by two of Orange staff members. They spoke about the Aboriginal Employment Strategy and the work to date that Orange City Council has carried out in conjunction with the Aboriginal community. Orange City Council's Aboriginal Employment Strategy is a time framed Action Plan that aims to:
Increase employment of Aboriginal people within Council and
Increase employment of Aboriginal people in the wider Orange Community

Already Council have made connections with key community groups. Reviewed Council's recruitment processes. Established a recruitment and job network inter agency to develop best practice guidelines. Working with Family Day Care to engage Aboriginal women as carers and promoting work experience within Council to local high schools.

It is Councils dream to work with Orange Chamber of Commerce to achieve;
Businesses looking at their recruitment practices
The employment of Aboriginal people in a range of positions
A greater cultural awareness within each business
Inclusive in our business community

This was a good presentation and very relevant to our business community. The other presentation involved an update of the progress of the Metro Plaza development and the remainder of refurbishments to be undertaken.

Community Forum- Proposed North Orange By-pass

Orange City Council proposes to construct a two-lane rural road to link the existing Northern Distributor road at Astill Drive with the Mitchell Highway at Chinamens Bend. This would extend the existing Northern Distributor Road to form a by-pass around Orange and would allow heavy and other vehicles to by-pass within Orange. In addition, the proposed by-pass would allow residents of Orange and others an alternate travel route than the existing Mitchell Highway route via Summer Street between the eastern and western sections of Orange. The road would be constructed in a corridor approximately 6.1km in length and between 30m to 45 m wide (the "Road Corridor").
Council intends to initially construct the formation of the road in a number of stages. This would be followed by construction of the intersections with the existing road network, namely at Ophir Road, Icely Road and the Mitchell Highway. Finally, Council would seal and then open the entire length of the proposed North Orange By-pass at the completion of the construction phase. Council anticipates that construction of the North Orange By-pass would be completed by late 2010.

Orange City Council staff held a Community Forum on the 4th of June to educate the public on the plans and seek feedback and questions from the public. This event was well attended.