Wednesday, 22 June 2022

Federal election

Mr ERDOGAN (Southern Metropolitan) (09:52): On Saturday night I attended an event hosted by the Melbourne Seniors Association in Epping to celebrate the results of the federal election. What a fantastic result for our nation and our state. Parliamentary democracy is more than just about winning an election; it is about implementing policies that improve the lives of many people and leave the community better off than when we came in. But this is only possible through community consultation and hearing directly from community members about the issues that concern them. Joining me at this event on the weekend were Dr Kieu, Minister D’Ambrosio and Bronwyn Halfpenny, and also federal colleagues Maria Vamvakinou, Peter Khalil and Andrew Giles, the new immigration minister in the Albanese Labor government.

Some of the issues we heard about were very important to the community members at this event—many members from Melbourne’s Pakistani community, Indian community, Rohingya community and many other multicultural communities—about the department of immigration and their slow processing times for partner visas and skilled migration visas, a system that under the LNP government had come to a standstill. Obviously there are other issues of concern: issues around the barriers faced by people of multicultural backgrounds; and a need and a plea for greater representation of multicultural people in executive government, in the judiciary and in broader parts of our government. Melbourne’s north is fortunate to have good, strong Labor representatives in the area, but they can only do their job with great community feedback like this. I would like to thank the Melbourne Seniors Association for putting this event on, especially Rana Shahid, the organiser.