FEBRUARY 9, 2016: I have restated his position that there be no intake of any Syrian refugees in Mackay, following suggestions that other towns like Nebo and Middlemount should be considered for refugee resettlement.I firmly believe that Mackay is not in a position to take on the resettlement of any refugees, and my objections are not religious or cultural; they are purely economic.We have a severe unemployment issue in the region right now, and the facts are that refugees need considerable support for a number of years.The statistics show that even after five years the vast majority of refugees will still be unemployed.I don’t see how settling scores of people who in the very best of circumstances find it difficult to get a job is economically beneficial for the Mackay region, and in fact, it could make things worse as we would have more people in the jobs market.I do note that my colleague the Member for Capricornia believes refugee resettlement would be economically beneficial for her electorate, and that’s fine for her electorate.But in terms of Dawson, there’s a very different situation going on.We are heavily impacted by the mining downturn and we are not in a position to provide the opportunities refugees would seek.