Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last Saturday I attended a Teej festival celebration in Hoppers Crossing organised by the Nepalese Organization of Wyndham and ably led by their president, Kamal Pyakurel. It was a privilege to be a part of the local Nepalese community's celebration of women. I was made to feel incredibly welcome and thoroughly enjoyed the dancing, laughter and spectacular dresses the women were wearing. I joined the local mayor, Henry Barlow, and other councillors at this event where the young MCs, Anuska and Anzelina, did a superb job of introducing everybody at the event and taking us through some of the detail of the evening. Anuska later did a dance performance, while Anzelina acted as an interpreter for me while I spoke to the people in this group.

The president gave a compelling speech where he expressed his love for Australia and his desire to make sure that he and his children make substantial contributions to repay the country that has given them so much. He spoke about how proud he was to be a member of the Wyndham community and how much he appreciated the opportunity to contribute to the local community and to Australia broadly. I could not think of better people to be Australian citizens than Kamal and his daughter Anzelina. With the changes that this government brought in yesterday, I'm worried about people like them and what those citizenship changes mean. (Time expired)

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