Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Customs, Community Safety and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I am deeply humbled to stand before you in this great place where I now commit again to be the servant and representative of the people of La Trobe, in the 46th Parliament, having been re-elected. This is actually my fifth term. The first time I was elected was back in 2004, when we had John Howard as Prime Minister, so I feel very honoured, being in a marginal seat, to again have the people of La Trobe supporting me. This time was interesting, because there had been the redistribution, and I thank very much those up in the Dandenong Ranges who have supported me in the past. Under the redistribution they're now in the Speaker's federal seat of Casey. The electorate of La Trobe now goes right to Pakenham and Nar Nar Goon. We've also lost Ferntree Gully and Upper Ferntree Gully in those areas too.

Having lived in the south-east and grown up in Ferny Creek and Belgrave and up through the Dandenong Ranges, I very much feel a strong connection to the south-east of Melbourne. It's a great place to bring up a family. Sometimes we as members of parliament don't—or we forget to—acknowledge the contribution made by our family members. I thank my parents, Bob and Jan, for everything they've done for me. It was always hard for them. The first time, when I told my father, I said, 'The Liberal Party's asked me to be a candidate in Holt.' He looked me in the eye and he said he'd never been more disappointed in his entire life. He was a pretty hard-core Labor man! As we all know, sometimes your own political views are not necessarily those of your family. Having said that, my father and my mother have been great supporters, and at times they have had to carry the burden of the policies of the government of the day, the Liberal Party and also my own views. So I thank them very much. They both have been unwell, and my thoughts are always with them.

My wife, Judy, was born in Hong Kong, and we have a fantastic, beautiful daughter, Jasmine, now five years old. I thank my wife, Judy, for again being there every time I've asked her to come to a function, when she has her own business. As she points out to me sometimes, she's working two jobs! I've always called Jasmine my secret weapon. I don't know how many functions Jasmine has gone to in the last couple of years, but every time she goes to a function she brings joy and hope to the place. Sometimes she lets Daddy know it's a pretty boring function and it's time to go home! That's what I love about kids: they're brutally honest.

I thank my campaign team, who worked tirelessly for me as volunteers, ably led by Andrew McNabb, the FEC chair; and the branches and all the supporters I have. It is really touching, and I know this is for all members of parliament, when you have this incredible volunteer base out there supporting you day in, day out—not getting paid. They go out on weekends. They go to train stations and shopping centres all believing the cause. I have so many volunteers and I thank them very much.

There was a huge difference in this campaign in La Trobe. Again, it was one of those seats where the media, I say wrongly, said that we'd would lose La Trobe in the election. I know things were tougher down in Victoria compared to other states. My best wishes are always with Chris Crewther, the former member for Dunkley and Sarah Henderson, the former member for Corangamite, for giving it all and, sadly, losing their seats. I acknowledge the other members from all parties who are not here. The public wouldn't realise that when you lose your seat your staff lose their jobs and it's actually very tough.

One of the big groups which really came on board supporting me in the recent federal election was the multicultural communities in La Trobe. It's something that we've seen in probably the last six or seven years. We've had so many migrant families move into the La Trobe area, especially from the Indian and Sri Lankan communities. I thank the Sri Lankan and Indian communities—and within the Indian the Sikh, the Gujarati, the Punjabi, the Bengali, the South Indian, the Tamil, the Telugu and the Malayali. The list goes on and I apologise for all the other community groups I haven't mentioned. The one thing I found with the Indian communities, and I suppose when it comes to Sri Lanka too, is that when it comes to cricket there's that mutual understanding and respect straightaway. I very much thank the Indian groups who play cricket with me on a Sunday morning. As I was going to field the ball they would always tell me what the government should be doing. I thank my friends in the Afghani community too, especially Ishaq for everything he has done for me. I thank the Pakistani community—and this is a growing community in La Trobe. I thank the guys who helped us out there.

An interesting one, and this caught the media a bit by surprise, was the strong support I had from the Sudanese and African communities. I put my hand up when we had issues with the African gangs. I was the one who said, 'There's an issue and we need to deal with that.' I very much thank Andrew Nyar, who is the South Sudanese leader in Pakenham, who I've worked very closely with and who has supported me in my campaign. What I'm trying to do locally once we've called out the issues is to do something about them. There's no future for any young person who's committing crimes, home invasions or carjackings. It's going to end up in tears every time for the victims but also for the young person. When they commit such a serious crime they will end up in jail for 10 years or get deported.

Some of the programs we introduced locally were through the Les Twentyman Foundation. Les is a great person from the western suburbs. Les appeared before our inquiry 'no-one taught me how to be an Australian'. I will say that that was a joint term agreed with the deputy, Maria Vamvakinou, to acknowledge the struggle within the South Sudanese community particularly—and that was by a gentleman by the name of Gum who was a youth worker with the Les Twentyman Foundation.

Les made the very strong point to me that if you want to make a difference in the communities who are doing it tough early intervention is the key. You have to get to the kids in schools with social workers, especially when someone has been in a country where they have seen the most horrific and horrendous crimes. It's like someone was telling me, in Sudan these young people have seen people butchered to death so they need much stronger support. Locally, through the Les Twentyman Foundation, we have seven highly skilled and trained youth workers in a number of schools, including in my local area of Pakenham and Berwick. I was with the vice-principal from Pakenham the other day, who in my office with the Les Twentyman Foundation. Manny, as they call him at the secondary college, was just saying how fantastic this has actually been at the Les Twentyman Foundation. That is something I'm very excited about it.

I will talk about the Hope Australia Soccer Academy. I had Larry Sebastian approach me. I had a committee formed where, again, they were bringing in—they called it Hope Australia—Brazilian soccer players, who had come over and wanted to help those in the greatest of need. They were very keen to help the Sudanese. In particular, when I say 'soccer players', I don't mean people who have kicked a soccer ball in Brazil. Some of the players who I met were actually in the World Cup winning Brazilian soccer team. It was a two-week period of coming out to Australia and then going around the world. Larry said to me, 'Why don't we see if we can make this long term?' I really want to thank the Minister Paul Fletcher, because we ended up securing $1 million to make sure that happens. We have two FIFA-trained soccer coaches in Australia. Their key role, locally in the south-east, is to work with children in harm. One of the key groups is the Sudanese group. I was told just recently by one of the Sudanese elders that, if you go to the youth detention centres, nearly half the kids who are in there in Victoria are actually African.

I say thank you again to the Muslim community. They have been very supportive. We work very closely together on various issues. We always do, and will continue to do so into the future. I am working with a Pakistani group locally who are just absolutely fantastic. I acknowledge the Indian Sikh community, the Gurdwara Siri Guru Nanak Darbar Officer and the Gurudwara Baba Budha Ji Pakenham. I acknowledge Harpreet and his team in Officer. When it comes to Pakenham, I very much want to thank Monty, his father, Suri, Jag, the president, the uncle and all of the guys down there. They were just incredible.

In the state election, a lot of these community groups made it very clear that they voted Labor. During the federal election, they decided to back me. It was more because they thought we were trying to do the best that we could for the local community. To me, it is something very special when people say, 'We're going to support you. We may have some concerns with policies, but we believe you're the person who can work with the local community.' That's something I'm very proud to say.

I thank the Indian Association Cardinia Casey. I thank the Cardinia Gujarati Association, and I'm going to mention Brijal there. I thank the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Melbourne, the Celebrate India organisation and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community group. As I mentioned before, Tariq and his great community are down there. I thank the Bangla Art Society of Victoria, the Cultural Society of Victoria, the Kerala community and Malayalees of Melbourne. I will say that the function was so moving at Bunjil Place after the flooding. What they're doing for their own community back home is something special. I thank the Sakyamuni Sambuddha Vihara Sri Lanka in Victoria, otherwise known as the Berwick Buddhist temple. I again thank all of the people down in that community there and especially those who introduced me to Ranj Perera, who is now actually on my staff and working with me as an advisor. I thank Sam from the community there.

Something really special happened during the campaign. The event was actually a planned event. It was straight after the awful attacks in Sri Lanka on the Easter weekend. We had the Prime Minister visiting on the Monday. I thank Dusha for all of her preparations and for having the beautiful Sri Lankan girls practising dance. The conversation was about whether we cancel the dancing and make it a more sombre event, but I had the very strong view that we never allow terrorists to win. Those beautiful little girls had been practising and singing, and it was great to have them perform in front of the Prime Minister and Mrs Morrison. I know that was one of the highlights of the Morrison family's visit to the amazing community after such a horrendous attack. There was the Afghan Australian Association of Victoria, the Coptic Christian Egyptians in Pakenham and, as I mentioned before, the Hope Australia Soccer Academy and the Buddhist Council of Victoria.

Australia has a very vibrant and multicultural community. We are home to the world's oldest continuous culture as well as Australians who identify with more than 270 ancestries. Since 1945, almost seven million people migrated to Australia. One of the things I found in the migrant community when I first dealt with the Buddhist Vihara in Berrick is how important their native language is. I find there's nothing worse when you meet parents who were born overseas and, when you say, 'Can your children speak the language from back home?' they say, 'No. At home we always make sure we speak English.' They kind of regret it. My little Jasmine at home speaks Cantonese and Mandarin.

I thank Prime Minister Scott Morrison for making $780,000 available to support a meditation and education facility at the Buddhist temple for children to learn. The same occurred in the Gurudwara in Pakenham and Officer. Money was made available, again so they would have the funds to ensure their children would be able to learn Punjabi. This is the sort of project, in my role as assistant minister, that I think is so vital and needs to be rolled out further across the country. We supported the Sikh Games with $120,000. Next year, in WA there will be another Sikh Games, with $300,000. Coming up on the AFL grand final weekend, they have games in Pakenham. As I just said to the guys, in some ways I hope Richmond doesn't make the grand final, because it will put a lot of pressure on to turn up for that event! Also, locally we have Bunjil Place, a $110 million facility. If anyone listening gets the opportunity, go down to Fountain Gate to see Bunjil Place. It won international arts awards last year. The work they have done is absolutely incredible.

A future multicultural project I'm working on is a multicultural hub design in Pakenham, with $350,000. It is to speak to migrant people and find out what is important to them and what is missing. One thing I definitely heard in my electorate, and I've realised this from the multicultural communities in particular, is that they may have 500, 600 or 700 people at a family and community function. The wider community is family. It is also about dealing with the issues of trying to find jobs and having sporting facilities in place for the seniors and the juniors, but not necessarily the traditional cricket, football and netball. There are the sports they have mentioned to me, like badminton, table tennis and other activities. This is something I want to work on with the local community to make sure we actually deliver, and I'm very excited about that.

Also, the Living and Learning centre in Pakenham was funded $180,000. The aim of the project is to address the challenges and break down some of the barriers facing the South Sudanese community in Cardinia, to foster better general relationships with authorities and youth focus groups, and to have a Sudanese warden program and legal aid sessions. There is also $322,000 for the Women's Association South East Melbourne Australia. This grant will be used to establish new Women's Friendship Circles. The WFC project has been developed to meet the needs of the rapidly changing neighbourhoods of the south-east community. Another a project I'm very excited about is in Cardinia Shire. I was able to secure $105,000 for them to employ a full-time Sudanese youth liaison officer. I thank the Bangladesh community for the Dream Harmony project—$65,000—which will bring music into the area.

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