Bridget Archer (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I commend the member for Scullin for bringing forward this motion today. On Friday, a year after the last Harmony Day celebrations were cancelled as the realities of the pandemic set in, my local community, including hundreds of migrants from all corners of the globe, came together to celebrate the end of Harmony Week. With the theme of 'everyone belongs', I was thrilled to learn that more than 1,600 Harmony Week events were planned across the nation as a celebration of the success of Australia's multicultural society.

In attendance at my local event in northern Tasmania were some of the more than 5,000 Nepali and Bhutan-born refugees who call our region home. These wonderful migrants, many of whom are now proud Australian citizens, make up some of the more than 100,000 Nepali-speaking Bhutanese who wound up in refugee camps in eastern Nepal between 1990 and 1993 after being expelled or fleeing the small Himalayan kingdom, leading to a refugee crisis.

I recently spoke of some of the many members of this amazing community who I have had the honour of getting to know over the past few months, including members of the Nepali Cricket Club, who have now secured a spot in the A-grade cricket league. Today I want to use the opportunity of standing here to give a voice to a fantastic young man who I met through his work with our local migrant resource centre. Obeth Rai is part of the Nepali-speaking Bhutanese community in Launceston. This is his story in his own words as he sent them to me:

I arrived in Launceston with my family back in 2013 after living more than 20 years in a refugee camp in Nepal. Living in refugee camp was not easy as there were no any electricity, fridges to restore foods and all the stuffs. However, it was okay enough to make a living.

When talking about Nepal's life, I always had a passion about arts and culture so I established a theatre called Suruwath (which means beginning) and led around 50 young people there.

Fortunately, an opportunity came around to my family where we got chance to come to Australia as a humanitarian entrant. Since then the life has been slowly changing, trying to adjust completely in a new environment. There were lot of struggles that I had to overcome once I arrived in Tasmania ranging from language issues, employment and cultural understanding.

Since I was very passionate about arts, I wanted to learn more about it here but it was not easy because of language. However, after learning English by going to English classes, seeking advices from teachers, I managed to get into bachelors of contemporary arts course in university of Tasmania.

After three years of study, I graduated from that course in 2018. I can't thank enough my teachers, friends, and family for always supporting and guiding me throughout my studies. After that I started involving actively in various social program including arts projects in different cities of Australia including:

•   MONA FOMA arts festival

•   Junction arts festival

•   Film screening - Bhutanese refugee feature movie in Adelaide.

•   Multicultural event in Melbourne with book launch.

•   10th anniversary settlement in Australia in Sydney.

•   Bhutanese faces of Launceston - documentary project Cultural Dance workshops in Brooks High School

Now, I am currently working as a project assistant in Thrive project run by migrant resource centre north and also as a support worker in NDIS program. I am privileged to be part of these wonderful organisations and very lucky to be here in Australia. I am also so grateful that I got to call Australia my home.

Obeth, I am so grateful that you now call Australia home.

It would be remiss of me not to point out that yesterday, the last day of Harmony Week, coincided with the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, calling for increased efforts across the international community to tackle racial discrimination. I was pleased to learn that the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs, the Hon. Alex Hawke MP, met just last week with the Australian Race Discrimination Commissioner, Chin Tan, to discuss his proposals for a national antiracism framework. Our government recognises that there is critical work ahead to foster a more inclusive society and stamp out racism and has asked the Department of Home Affairs and the agencies, including the A-G's Department, to work further with Commissioner Tan on the proposals he has presented. This is a positive step in the right direction to create a nation that is truly welcoming and safe for new migrants like Obeth.

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