Nic Street,Minister for Community Services and Development
The Tasmanian Government stands with Ukraine and its right to peace, freedom and democratic rule.
It gave me great joy to welcome back Rachel Lehmann-Ware and Duncan Ware, we are very glad to see them home safe and on Tasmanian soil.
The Tasmanian Government organised a flight to repatriate the couple back to Australia. It departed from Romania on 16 March 2022 and arrived in Australia at 7am on 18 March 2022
The escalating crisis in Ukraine has rightly shocked the world.
I acknowledge these events have deeply impacted them and other Tasmanians who have friends and family in Ukraine, and the personal stress that this has caused.
The Tasmanian Liberal Government has and continues to work with our federal counterparts to understand how we can assist.
We are glad to hear that the Australian Government is progressing outstanding visa applications from Ukrainian nationals as a priority, across all visa categories. There will also be automatic visa extensions for 6 months to Ukrainian nationals living in Australia who have a visa expiring before 30 June 2022.
We would welcome the opportunity to have people resettle in Tasmania.
I am so glad that the Australian Government and the Tasmanian Government could help Rachel and Duncan to safely return and be back here with family and friends.
Once again, I sincerely welcome Rachel and Duncan back to Tasmania and wish them all the very best as they settle back in.
