Ben Doherty in Apollo Bay Sat 20 Jun 2026 01.00 AEST
In International Refugee Week, two speeches paint starkly different visions of the country.
One a story of hope and kindness and the other demanding that Australia return to some mythical past, a fictional golden age of narrow imagination.
They came in the chill of winter to hear their speaker, a man known to most only as a name.
“Thank you,” Mohammad Ibrahim told the people of Apollo Bay. “Today I am proud to call Australia my home.”
Here, assembled before him in the Mechanics Hall, was the town that made that happen. A town that raised money so he could eat and his children could be clothed, raised hell with members of parliament, ministers, bureaucrats, journalists – anyone who would listen, and many who wouldn’t – to see that Australia upheld its obligation to him.
Four years on behalf of a family they’d never met.
“Never underestimate the power of kindness,” he said. “Because what may seem like a small action to you can become the difference between hope and despair for someone else.”
Read the full story in The Guardian: