A quarter of the refugees settled in Australia over the past decade have come to live in NSW. While the Commonwealth notoriously ‘‘decides who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come’’, once they get here, settling them into the community, and ensuring refugees have access to health services, education and housing, is the job of the state government. At least, that’s the opinion of NSW Auditor-General Peter Achterstraat, who issued a scathing report two years ago finding NSW was doing a ‘‘poor’’ job and not meeting its responsibilities to the roughly 33,000 refugees who had settled in the state over 10 years.

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/nsw-needs-to-put-out-welcome-mat-to-refugees-20140510-zr88e.html#ixzz31YCM59LB