World Refugee Day

The SPEAKER: I advise the House that, for the first time, Parliament House will participate in an event that celebrates World Refugee Day, which is marked each year on 20 June. This day is celebrated annually by the United Nations to recognise the strength, courage, resilience and potential of refugees around the world. This year World Refugee Day will focus on the need for protection, including economic stability and protection from violence and persecution.

In an initiative led by the Australian Association for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the President and I have agreed for the Parliament building to be illuminated in United Nations blue on Friday night to coincide with the lighting of the Jet d'eau in Geneva and the lighting of key monuments in Australia such as the Captain Cook Memorial water jet located on Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra. This is the first time that a public building in Sydney will be illuminated for World Refugee Day.