Lessons for refugee support: Insights from Tim McKenna

At the Department of Home Affairs Refugee Event on 20 June 2025 in Canberra, marking 50 years since Vietnamese refugees arrived in Australia, Dr Tim McKenna, Chair of the Vincentian Refugee Network, reflected on the evolution of refugee support.  

His address highlighted how community spirit, collaboration, and government support helped shape a successful settlement model – lessons as relevant today as they were five decades ago. 

Dr McKenna recalled his early days volunteering in Canberra when the Indo-China Refugee Association (ICRA) launched Operation Camplift, circa 1979. 

'Under Camplift, refugee families flew directly from the camps in South-East Asia to Canberra, staying in hostels here, until medical checks were completed before an ICRA community host group found them accommodation,' he said. 'These host groups also provided furniture and other household necessities, helped find employment, oriented the family to the Canberra community, gave modest financial assistance and offered friendship.' 

This hands-on, personal support was crucial in helping refugees feel welcomed and settled. 

Education was also a vital part of early integration. 'English as a Second Language classes were available for adults at TAFE institutions, where my wife Margot taught them, and for children at public high schools,' Dr McKenna said. 

Meanwhile, things began evolving at a national level. 

'In mid-1975, Ted and Eileen Bacon set up a Vinnies group to assist Indo-Chinese refugees arriving at the Sydney hostels,' he said. 'Volunteers worked out of a shed at each hostel, giving similar support to refugees that Vinnies provided, and still provides, to any Australian.' 

Recognising the need to continue supporting refugees once they left the hostels, the Society established a national refugee committee in early 1978.  

'The Catholic Bishops helped, by issuing a statement in May of that year, asking each parish to help at least one refugee family,' Dr McKenna said. 

'In 15 years, we housed and supported at least 10,000 refugees, mostly from Vietnam.' 

This effort involved cooperation with Catholic religious orders, the Australian Council of Churches, the Uniting Church, the Salvos, the Baptist Union of NSW, Red Cross, Smith Family, and ICRA. 

He quoted Ted Bacon, writing in 1978: ‘It is my firm conviction that settlement by church parishes and other community organisations is not only practical but necessary’. 

While grassroots support was essential, Dr McKenna stressed the need for government involvement: 'This community effort needed and received Australian Government leadership and support, helped by bipartisan agreement.'  

This collaboration between community organisations and government underpinned the success of the Vietnamese refugee program, and current approaches must reflect and learn from the past, he reflected. 

Dr McKenna also highlighted how the early work laid the groundwork for the Society’s ongoing refugee support and advocacy.  

'For Vinnies, the great work done at that time formed the basis for our ongoing work for refugees and for the more complex cases of people seeking asylum today,' he said.  

As Australia faces new waves of displacement globally, these lessons from the Vietnamese refugee experience shared by Dr McKenna, offer a blueprint for compassion, inclusion, and shared responsibility.