And that is what it is – divine luck. We are not Australian because we have earned it or because it is our right. We were simply born here instead of into one of the many countries where life is precarious.

It is no more our right to live a life free from privation or fear than it is anyone born in any other part of the world.

We live lives that are, for the most part, charmed.

Our anger is for cigarette prices and car parks, Facebook slurs and taxes.

We are not waking each day to starvation or the renewed memory of terror. Most of us have our families, high expectations of our standard of coffee, and a reasonable belief that we can change the government should we find it absolutely unbearable.

It hasn’t always been this way for all Australians. An emotional speech by Gunnedah’s first Aboriginal councillor Gwen Griffen brings home the fact that our own country is not without shame.

Aboriginal children were taken from their parents. Many grew up with no expectation of education or a solid future.

Aboriginal people were not, Cr Griffen said, afforded the same advantages we now want to offer refugees.

But surely that is even more reason to show that we no longer want to act in that way. We do not want to continue in fear of people who still believe in right or wrong, in family, in love and in justice, but who have other beliefs that are different to the bulk of Australians.

We have stringent refugee screening and to date we appear to have had largely amazing benefits from the 800,000 refugees who have found a home here since Federation. A good many of us would not be here today were it not for the policies of the past.

We have so much. We need to open our arms and our minds just a little to share.

Fear is understable following the unthinkable events in one of the world’s favourite cities.

This is what can happen. Sadly, this is what can happen anywhere, anytime.

But as horrific as these events were, as St Vincent De Paul’s  Tony van Dorst pointed out, it is only a shadow of the horror that some of these people have faced, and continue to face. They are running from exactly this.

They are seeking asylum.

We have a strong country with strong laws and strong beliefs. While we might fear a repeat of what has happened in France and in the United States, there is no reason to believe that this is what will happen by taking in some of those who are running for their lives. Neither must we think our own values will be undermined.

Gunnedah should applaud the decision to become a Refugee Welcome Zone and accept another chapter in our multi-coloured history.