Labor selects former Liberal MP as adviser on refugees - Australia
Stephanie Peatling; 24/3/08
The former Sydney Liberal MP and refugee advocate Bruce Baird has been appointed by the Federal Government to head its most influential immigration committee. A long-time humanitarian campaigner, he will shortly take up a three-year position as chairman of the Refugee Resettlement Advisory Committee, a group which advises the Government on how recently arrivals in Australia are settling in to the community. The parliamentary secretary for multicultural affairs, Laurie Ferguson, said Mr Baird had been at the top of his list of possible chairmen. “I think that Bruce had a fairly impressive record in raising these issues in the last government, possibly to his own detriment,” Mr Ferguson told the Herald yesterday