Thursday, 10 February 2022

Mildura Tongan community

Ms CUPPER (Mildura) (09:51): The recent volcanic eruption and tsunami near Tonga has had a deep and lasting impact on our community. Our electorate has the highest proportion of Tongan people of any regional area in our state, and the fear and uncertainty in the immediate aftermath of this event caused significant pain and hardship. Tongan communities in Mildura, Robinvale Irymple, Colignan, Nichols Point and Red Cliffs were all deeply concerned about what was happening to family and friends overseas.

Close to a decade ago a proposal led by former mayor Peter Byrne, OAM and members of the local Tongan community was brought before Mildura Rural City Council to make Mildura a sister city with the Tongan capital Nuku‘alofa. It could have provided many benefits to the nation through partnerships in education and policing and especially in health. Remarkably and very sadly Tonga’ s health system does not have the capacity to provide dialysis services to the high numbers of people living with diabetes. A sister-city partnership would provide a foundation for deep, meaningful and long-term healthcare partnerships that would be enormously beneficial to our close Pacific neighbour. The sister-city proposal was ultimately declined by council at that time, but I am working with our local Tongan community council, the Sunraysia Mallee Ethnic Communities Council and other stakeholders to see if the idea could be reconsidered. The discussion has been enthusiastically received by the Tongan community and indeed the broader community, and we are hopeful for a good outcome this time.