The festival of lights was marked with colourful cuisine, Bollywood performances, henna painting and student-led activities.

Hosted by the Victorian Multicultural Commission’s (VMC) Multifaith Advisory Group (MAG), the event brought together senior leaders from Victoria’s faith communities to reflect on ways to build a more harmonious and inclusive Victoria.

Immigration New Zealand (INZ) said Patel initially ran legitimate businesses but later turned them into fronts for a fraudulent scheme that sold false employment opportunities to visa applicants.

Minister for Ageing Ingrid Stitt MP, Robert Caulfield, President of the Council on the Ageing (COTA) Victoria and Seniors Rights Victoria, joined Governor of Victoria Prof. Margaret Gardner AC to present the awards.

The ABS issued a public statement clarifying that overseas arrivals figures had been misused to suggest inflated migration numbers.

The motion was put forward by Labor Councillor Michael Ng as a matter of urgency after Senator Price suggested the Labor Party was allowing “large numbers” of Indian migrants into Australia because they “ultimately vote for Labor.”

18-year-old Navjot Singh’s father was deported when he was just five days old, and his mother lost her legal status in 2012.

The warning comes amid a legal dispute over the deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago, partly intended to protect immigration enforcement officers.

The festivities were graced by Senator Paul Scarr, MPs Margie Nightingale and Julie-Ann Campbell, representing the Prime Minister’s Office, as well as local area councillors and a large gathering of the Indian community and friends of India.

In Sydney, PM commemorated 190 years since the arrival of Christianity in Fiji and celebrating the nation’s 55th Independence Day.