Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for the Environment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to acknowledge and express my sorrow about the circumstances facing the people of India. They are right in the teeth of this awful pandemic. The scale of the health crisis and the related fear and suffering at moment are simply terrible, and it's critical that Australia and other nations keep providing all possible support.

I was fortunate to live in India as a kid, in Maharashtra, for a year when I was about eight, and it was the first country that I travelled to under my own steam as a backpacker when I was 20. At the end of 2019 I was in New Delhi and Mumbai on a committee delegation, and it was incredible to again see the diversity, energy and generosity of spirit that is distinctive of India at its best.

Those qualities have come to greatly enrich multicultural Australia. Australians of Indian heritage are the fastest growing cohort of new citizens and already represent three per cent of our population. There are more than 2,000 constituents of mine who have that connection, including my friend Yaz Mubarakai, the member for Jandakot in the WA parliament. He migrated to WA 20 years ago.

Knowing the gravity of the humanitarian disaster that India faces, it was a bad mistake to threaten with prison Australians who simply want to come home. What's really important to say, though, to the people of India and to all Australians with Indian heritage is we acknowledge the terrible crisis you're confronting, we're with you and we'll get through this together.