Honour Roll recognises inspiring Leichhardt women

Honour Roll recognises inspiring Leichhardt women

Nine inspirational, community-minded women were selected on March 7 to be added to Leichhardt Council’s International Women’s Day Honour Roll.

The names were announced following nominations sent in by the community for women who had made an outstanding contribution to social justice.

One of the women selected was Frances Milne, convener of Balmain for Refugees. Milne co-ordinates a team of 120 pro-bono barristers, solicitors, legal researchers and key workers for the plight of those seeking asylum in Australia.

Milne is also the co-founder of the Management Committee of Bridge for Asylum Seekers Foundation, an organisation which has raised and distributed over $2 million to refugees in the community since 2003.

Humble about her personal achievements, Milne preferred to acknowledge the work of her organisation: “I think the idea of having recognition of local women is a good idea… [but] I think the issue for me is not so much to have personal recognition, but to really elevate an area which is by government being demonised, which is the issue of asylum seekers and helping them.”

Milne first became involved with refugees following the Tampa crisis in 2001. “We started regularly visiting Villawood in 2002 and doing letters of last resort to the Minister [for Immigration], trying to overturn what we felt were bad decisions,” she said.

Several people, who were deemed to be safe in their home countries by the government, were actually found to be in serious danger by Balmain for Refugees. “We would spend many hours getting the real story from people and then getting the evidence to back up the claims they made,” Milne said. “This would result in the issues that they raised being looked at again, or the Minister intervening and giving them a protection visa.”

It was these achievements that continue to motivate Milne in her ongoing devotion to the cause. Certainly, the most rewarding aspect of her job is seeing the reaction when asylum is granted – “the thrill of being able to see people’s life transformed from anxiety and fear and terror.”

Milne praised Leichhardt Council’s Honour Roll initiative, and credited Leichhardt as being “a very enlightened area” for dealing with sensitive but important issues.

Joining Milne on the Honour Roll were eight other women: Agnes Ware, Ashley Douglas, Bronwyn Bancroft, Dawn Atkinson, Debby Nicholl, Larisa Wasylenko, Megan Etheridge and Jenny Toisuta.

by Jennifer Lush

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