Thursday, 10 December 2020

Ethiopia conflict

Mr CARBINES (Ivanhoe) (09:56): It is an honour to chair the Victorian African Communities Action Plan Implementation Committee on behalf of the Minister for Multicultural Affairs, the member for Yuroke, and with great support of course from the Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs, the member for Sunbury.

Can I say that I want to acknowledge the situation in Ethiopia, which will directly or indirectly be affecting many within our communities. We are watching with sadness as we see the escalating conflict, death and displacement. I am aware there will be some in our communities who have family and community in Ethiopia or in the Horn of Africa more broadly, and we are thinking of them at this time. I know several of our committee members were involved in meetings with the Victorian Multicultural Commission and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in recent weeks. For those not present, those discussions included how we can petition the commonwealth government to bring home Ethiopians with Australian citizenship and work with the global community to help support those who do not.

In 2016 I had the privilege to visit Ethiopia as a member of the Victorian parliamentary trade delegation. I met the then health minister, former foreign minister and now head of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. I also visited several regions, including the Tigray, Oromia and Somali regions and the capitals of Addis Ababa, Jijiga and Mek’ele. I have a significant community from the Horn of Africa in my electorate of Ivanhoe, through the West Heidelberg community in particular. Our thoughts are with their families, whether they are in Australia or back in Ethiopia, and we offer them every support and call on the commonwealth government to continue to advocate for their interests.