RELATED CONTENT: What Bert said on Australia Day
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WHEN Moruya Surf Life Saving Club stalwart Bert Hunt delivered a message of tolerance and acceptance in Moruya on Australia Day, he knew it wasn’t going to go down well with everyone.
Mr Hunt, 67, talked about the contribution of migrants to Moruya society, and urged Australians to be welcoming of other people and cultures.
“Those who didn’t agree kept it to themselves, but I was surprised that the general reaction was that it took guts to stand up and say what many of them were thinking,” he said.
“I’m not an expert and I am no more entitled to my opinion than anyone else, but I say ‘let’s be welcoming and tolerant’.
“It’s just my take; other people have their own take.”
Mr Hunt, who was president of ACT Rugby and on the board of the Australian Rugby Union, didn’t form such an opinion in the car on the way to the ceremony.
He organised an Anzac commemorative surfboat marathon around the Gallipoli peninsula in April last year, involving crews from Moruya, Canberra, New Zealand and Turkey.
“It was amazing; the experience of a lifetime,” he said.
“I have been very blessed with such experiences. On the way back I visited Morocco. I was apprehensive but I found a country full of lovely, welcoming people; a Muslim country with many synagogues and churches, where people love and respect the King and each other.”
He believes people should have more sympathy for those fleeing Middle Eastern war zones. “People are living in fear, with their countries, cities and towns devastated,” he said.
“People fled from Europe to Africa around the Second World War and what did they do? They accepted them. I don’t know what the answer is, but I know we are all part of the human race and we have got to look after each other.”
He doesn’t believe wars fix anything: “I don’t believe we would be where we are (with the current Middle Eastern refugee crisis) if not for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which came from a lie.” Visit www.batemansbaypost.com.au for more.