Musician and Singer-Songwriter
Wally de Backer is an international award winning musician and singer-songwriter, best known for his single ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’ released under the name Gotye. He is also the drummer for three-piece Melbourne band The Basics. In 2013 Wally was named one of the ‘top 50 most influential Australians in the arts’ by The Australian.
Wally advocates for human rights and the humane treatment of asylum seekers at every opportunity. He has performed at numerous benefit gigs, supported The Hot Potato campaign, and we are honoured to have him amongst our ASRC Ambassadors.
”Every human being deserves to be treated with dignity, compassion and respect. A country like Australia can do better than this.
When people come seeking asylum, which is their right, there needs to be a situation where they can be treated with respect and with dignity and where their case can be processed in a reasonable period of time.
I think that’s a responsibility Australia has. It’s not like we’re under pressure really when you look at numbers compared to other places in the world.
[I’m] very happy to support the ASRC because they do great work and there’s an incredible energy in that place. I’d like to spend more time there. I’d like to be able to volunteer and spend some time there every week.”