SBS Punjabi invited a range of Indian origin candidates for a panel discussion on the major issues in these elections and to understand what inspired them to run, since many candidates are contesting elections for the first ever time.
Commenting on the millions of dollars worth of electoral promises made by both Labor and Liberal parties in the lead up to the November 24 elections, all of the four panelists at SBS agreed "it was intended to grab votes", with one panelist saying "the Indian community vote is not for sale" and that "the community is smart enough to see through it".
Despite repeated requests, none of the Labor or Liberal candidates made themselves available for the panel discussion held on Monday November 19, but SBS Punjabi was delighted to have four candidates of Indian heritage, from varied constituencies across Melbourne, who provided us various insights into the upcoming elections.
Tarang Chawla is an independent candidate, contesting from the South Eastern Metropolitan region, for a chance take a seat in the upper house of the Victorian parliament.
He’s widely recognized for his advocacy to end violence against women.
“Violence against women is a national epidemic - this year, 61 women have been murdered," he told SBS Punjabi.
"This means we've lost more than one woman per week, and this is after I lost my sister Nikita to senseless violence perpetrated by a man. I'm running on a group ticket with Nicole Lee who herself is a survived 10 years of violence - of rape and brutality."
Citing statistics of what violence against women costs the Victorian as well as the Australian economy, he is vowing to working with any state government, to put measures in place to tackle this complex issue.
Arnav Sati is making his debut in Victorian politics by contesting for the seat of Tarneit, which is a safe Labor seat. An IT expert and a resident of Tarneit, he says, “Any safe seat suffers from neglect from both sides of politics. You have one party which easily wins the seat without doing much and the other party is simply not interested in the area. This leads to lack of investment, lack of infrastructure and many major issues”.
He compared the two electorates of Tarneit and Geelong, saying the latter has attracted far more investment purely because it’s a marginal seat “The reason I'm running is, to make Tarneit a marginal seat, so that we can finally get the development we deserve. I’m tired of the biased and vote-based funding model of both major parties.”
Moti Visa is a well respected and long established member of Melbourne’s Indian origin community. Running a newspaper, as well as being involved in other small businesses, he was associated with the Liberal party for a very long time before joining the newly formed Transport Matters Party.
A candidate for the Upper House from the Northern Metropolitan region, Mr Visa told SBS Punjabi, “Our party was formed to highlight transport and traffic issues in Victoria, as well to advocate for issues faced by those people who work in the vast transport industry”.
“Both major parties are always fighting with each other, and fighting amongst themselves. That’s why we see leaders and Prime Ministers changing so frequently. Our party has been formed in an effort to restore balance in the parliament.”
Naresh Bhalla is a Greens party candidate for the lower house seat of Forest Hill. Formally joining the Greens in 2016, he says he’s had a lifelong interest in politics, and would really like to make a difference in Victoria.
“Infrastructure is a major issue in my electorate, better transport, better planning for residential area, environment- even the Adani Carmichael mine is an issue. No major party has any plan to ease the congestion in our area - they are only helping their investment mates. Residents in my area are also concerned about politicians using racism to win votes. I stand for fairness and to say that our state is not for sale.”
(From L-R) Moti Visa,Tarang Chawla, Manpreet K Singh, Arnav Sati, Naresh Bhalla Source: SBS Punjabi
Although Victoria still hasn't voted in any Member of Parliament of Indian origin yet, an unprecedented number of candidates of Indian heritage are contesting the state elections this time round.
Others include:
Labor: Kaushaliya Vaghela, Manoj Kumar, Nildhara Gadani, Ashish Verma, Abhimanyu Kumar, Dr Shahbaz and Sukhraj Singh
Liberal: Dinesh Goursetti, Kuldip Kaur, Pallavee Joshi, Gurdawar Singh, Lakhwinder Singh, Shilpa Hegde, Neelam Rai Dhingra
Greens: Naresh Bhalla and Harkirat Singh Ajnoha
Transport Matters Party: Santosh Kumar Yadav, Deepakbir Kaur, Chetan Sharma, Inderpal Singh, Gagandeep Singh from Transport Matters Party.
As well as the above, there are many Indian heritage candidates contesting the elections independently.
Four candidates, namely Moti Visa, Tarang Chawla, Arnav Sati and Naresh Bhalla participated in SBS Punjabi's panel discussion on the upcoming Victorian elections.
From L-R Moti Visa,Tarang Chawla, Manpreet K Singh, Naresh Bhalla, Arnav Sati Source: SBS Punjabi
Some questions we asked include:
1. Do voters vote on local electorate issues or national issues?
2.Both major parties – Labor and Liberal have announced funding of millions of dollars specifically for the Indian community. Will this be enough to attract the vote or will voters see through it?
3. 'Overcrowding' as an issue. Should immigration level be adjusted to address this problem?
4. Should states have more authority to decide on immigration numbers?
5. Safety and security issues, especially after three major violent incidents in Melbourne CBD.
6. Parental visas
7. Who will become Premier on Nov 24 -- Daniel Andrews or Matthew Guy? Will a major party win by a simple majority or will there be a hung parliament?
Watch the video above to hear the full and uncut version.
