Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Tomorrow night being 22 October, the National Golden Gavel and Australian Young Lawyer awards night will be held in Melbourne. I am delighted to advise the House that an amazing young lawyer from my electorate will be the 2015 recipient of the Law Council of Australia's prestigious national Young Lawyer of the Year award. I place on record my absolute congratulations to the incredible Kevin Kadirgamar.

I have had the pleasure of working with Kevin on a number of local immigration issues. He is a remarkable young man, and I am very, very proud of his achievements. So too are his colleagues from local law firm Ward Keller. One of the managing partners, Leon Loganathan, told me how he was also very proud of Kevin. He said what an honour it is for Kevin to receive this award, given the small jurisdiction that we live in but also the competitiveness of this award. He noted that Kevin has done some amazing things for the Northern Territory, and I certainly have to agree with that.

I know Kevin to be a compassionate and genuine young man who is realistic, and he does not shy away from a challenge. As I have stated many times in this place, Darwin is a very, very multicultural community, and Kevin is a very important part of the success of our multicultural community. His impressive qualifications and achievements do not stop solely with law but can be seen through his leadership throughout the Darwin multicultural community. Kevin helped establish a youth led organisation called Multicultural Youth NT, which gives young people from all backgrounds a chance to integrate into our great Territory community. MyNT, as it is called, empowers young people. Its motto reads: 'Make your ideas reality!'

Kevin also sits on a number of boards. These include the Australia Day Council and the Northern Territory Council for Human Rights Education, and he does that as the public officer. He also sits on the Youth Justice Advisory Committee and Neighbourhood Watch NT.

In my mind, there is no doubt that Kevin is beyond deserving of this highly competitive Young Lawyer of the Year award. He is an asset to the Territory and to the practice of law. I would like to once again congratulate Kevin on this tremendous achievement. He is doing the Territory proud. I look forward to continuing working with him and hearing of all the great contributions that he continues to make throughout the Top End's youth and multicultural communities. Well done, Kevin. We are so proud, and I hope that I have not let the cat out of the bag by making this announcement here today.

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