Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

On Saturday it was my absolute pleasure to attend the launch of the Women Leading Change network in Parramatta. It was part of the celebrations for International Women's Day. As I understand it, there is already such a network in Melbourne and both are initiatives of the Humanitarian Crisis Hub, which works with people from countries affected by war and supports diaspora community initiatives here in Australia. The Women Leading Change network is about bringing together some of the most extraordinary women you are likely to meet, women who are well known and incredibly effective in their own subcommunities, to share resources, support each other and, hopefully, through their work increase the strength of their voices in the broader community.

I want to acknowledge the women who were on the panels that day because they are some extraordinary women: Nava Malula, from the Swahili speaking women; Saada Abdikarim, from the Somali community; Shalailah Medhora, from SBS World News; Pamela Hartgerink, from STARTTS; Dr Mehreen Faruqi, who is a Greens member of the legislative council; Ming Yu, from Amnesty international; Dr Sam Pari, national spokesperson for the Australian Tamil Congress; Seng Maw Lahpai, from the Kachin ethnic community; Najeeba Wazefadost, from Hazara Women of Australia; Anjani Regmi, from the Nepalese community; Tennah Kpaka, from the Sierra Leone community; and Rayila Maimaiti, from the Uighur community.

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