A community engagement event was recently organized by the Indian Advocacy Forum (IAF) with representatives from both the Labor and Liberal parties engaging in an important dialogue with the Indian-Australian community.
In a first of its kind event for the Indian diaspora, Federal Member for Parramatta Dr Andrew Charlton who is once again the candidate for Labor for the seat and the Liberal candidate from Parramatta, Katie Mullens, took questions from the community in light of the upcoming federal elections.
The questions included issues like Permanent Long-Term Visa for parents of Indian migrants, allocating land for a Hindu cremation ground, addressing bullying and religious discrimination in schools, protecting the sacred Swastik symbol and ending its inaccurate and false representation as the Nazi Hakenkreuz, ensuring fair and unbiased reporting in ABC and SBS, combating anti-Hindu hate crimes and Temple vandalism, advancing equity in community language education and several others.
Our Editor Pallavi Jain was invited to ask questions on behalf of the communty. To know the answers watch the video below:
Several community organisations were part of this initiative including United Indian Associations, SEWA Australia, Sydney Kannada Sangha, Veerashaiva Samaja of Asia Pacific, Temple of Humanity Inc., Tamil Manram, Brahman Samaj, Himachal Association of Australia (HAA), Garvi Gujarat Australia, United Gujarati Australia National, BAPS, Bhavsar Samaj, Gujarati Samaj NSW, JET Australia, AISECS, Indian Community Forum, Hindu Federation Of Australia, Ma Bharti Foundation, Safe Haven For Everyone Australia, South Asia Federation Of Australia ( SAFA), Gujarati School, UTS Student Association, Nrityam performance, Rajchandra Mission, Vaishnav Samaj Of Sydney, Sydney Dharma Community, Tamil Association, Telugu Community, ATF, Indo Australian Sanatan Society, Krishna Temple Marsden Park, Umiya Pariwar Australia, HSS, Gayatri Pariwar and Association of Haryanvis in Australia (AHA).
The Indian Advocacy Forum (IAF) is a non-partisan platform and their mission is to protect, promote, and advance the rights and interests of the Indian community through active civic engagement, policy advocacy, and community empowerment. It has been founded by Ankur Patel, Bob Kapil Bajaj, Chetan Kusumgar, Deepesh Parikh, Gopinath . S and Manoj Desai.
IAF serves as a bridge between the diaspora and Australia’s political and social institutions. They work to ensure that the concerns and aspirations of the Indian Australian community are heard, respected, and reflected in government policies and public discourse. By engaging with political parties, elected representatives, and government bodies at all levels, they advocate for inclusive policies that positively impact the lives of Indian Australians.
They aim to continue building a more inclusive, equitable, and representative Australia for generations to come.
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