Sada-e-Watan
Sydney ™
sadaewatan@gmail.com
Shaoquett Moselmane MP,Harish Velji & John Robertson MP
Hon.Shaoquett Moselmane host a dinner at the New South Wales Parliament House
for Sub Continent Community Leaders
(Sub Continent Community to work collectively for
Community Good)
Coveragr
By:Harish Velji
Recently a
group of Sub Continent community leaders participated in a dinner organised by
the Hon Shaoquett Moselmane MLC at the New South Wales Parliament House Sydney.
Those who participated were Prof Nihal Agar, Prakash Chandra, Sneh Channdra,Nur
Rehman, Amarinder Bajwa,Syed Zafar Hussain,Munir Mohammed,Ganesh KC and Tapindra
Thapa.NSW Opposition Leader John Robertson also joins for few minutes because he
was busy at the Parliament session.
The Hon Shaoquett Moselmane MLC said of the function " It was an absolute
pleasure for me as a member of the legislative council to host a dinner at
parliament house NSW bringing together a group of distinguished people from
across the Indian, Pakistan and the Subcontinent."
"Over the past year or so that I have been a member of the NSW Legislative
Council I have been hosting many different groups of many different backgrounds
and many different faiths. I know as a member of a migrant community how
important it is to have access and to have a voice where it counts."
"Participation and inclusion in the democratic process is most empowering and I
want to be able to help such minority groups and growing communities to settle
into our Australian society but be able also to settle in and understand their
rights and of course their obligations."
"I want to be able to represent such communities in the NSW parliament but also
bring them into the corridors of parliament where they can meet politicians of
all persuasions. I wanted them to be able to meet those that matter when it
comes to policy and policy decisions and those that count when it comes to
matters of funding and support.
"I wanted the newly established and settling migrant communities and minority
groups to have a say and understand what really happens in the NSW parliament
and how they can benefit their communities said The Hon Shaoquett Moselmane MLC
.
I have therefore decided to form a number of advisory groups that I can call on,
consult and discuss issues and for that group to advise me on issues of concern
to them, to their group and to the wider communities from which they come. I am
also forming a group to advise me and I represent them on Chinese community
matters as well as Arabic and other groups of different faiths.
"That empowers me with the relevant information and from there take up community
issues in Parliament. I effectively want to be their voice and raise issues of
concern where I possibly can. That is The purpose of the dinner meeting and it
was certainly an honour to have met old and new friends and special thanks to
Harish Velji for assisting me get such a diverse group of people from India,
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Fiji Indians and Nepali".
"We hope in the course of future discussions to organise Community Dinners at
parliament celebrating various community and religious festivals and to discuss
opportunities to promote business, Trade and investment meetings." "One of the
many ideas I hope to execute is to host an international trade conference or
discussion relating to the Sub continent, followed by a dinner at the NSW
Parliament."
"This group will meet regularly and I intend to widen the group to include
others of the Sub Continent. I hope the next working meeting will be by the end
of the month".
The Hon Shaoquett Moselmane MLC in a recent short speech argued that the
Anti-Discrimination Act be amended to include religion as a ground of
discrimination there by making it unlawful to discriminate anyone on the ground
of religious belief or absence of belief.
He also gave a speech on the need to amend the planning laws to have specific
religious development zones for the development of public worship and Prayer
houses."
He also urged the relevant Minister to progress the work of the former Labor
government, in addressing the shortage of burial grounds for many minority
ethnic and religious groups.
Nur Rehman a public officer of the major Bangladeshi Group said " The Sub
Continental Labor forum has potential to create opportunities for sub
continental Australians to share their views in social, political, work and
economic development. "
"A huge number of migrants from the subcontinent have already been contributing
to the Australian national economy at different levels. However, these
contributions may be recognised appropriately through the voice of this forum.
Eventually, this can change the perception about sub continental migrants in
Australia."
Prakash Chandra a Fiji Indian community leader said "This forum showed that
there are many issues that we can work that we have in common.. This will give
us added strength which we did not have and yet maintain our unique identities."
Amarinder Bajwa representing UIA reiterated the need of regular community
consultations to address the issues concerning the Sub continent communities.
UIA is progressively involved with the communities at the ground level and knows
the issues first hand, how these concerns are affecting the communities, how it
affects the families that struggle under the social pressures of jobs, security,
families, parents, mortgages etc and rising living costs. Indian diaspora is
hardworking, intelligent, well educated, law abiding and very social we need
advocate their plight so that they can have a fair go in Australia.
