Wednesday, 5 March 2025

 Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (17:43): I rise to speak on the annual report of the Department of the Legislative Council. I have referred to it in a few previous statements on reports. It outlines the very many and varied things that we do as part of our work in this place and indeed the very many ways in which the incredible staff of this place help to make everything work. One of the smaller components of the parliamentary life is the concept of parliamentary friendship groups. There are many of them that exist. In fact I believe there have been three that have been formed just this week. They are often formed for particular countries that we have close relationships with as the state of Victoria, they can be named for other concepts or they can be named for football teams. Some members wish to show how misguided and foolish they are by aligning themselves publicly with certain football teams.

One of the parliamentary friendship groups that I am personally affiliated with is the Parliamentary Friends of Ukraine. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, as I said this morning, did not start three years ago. It started 11 years ago with the invasion and annexation of Crimea. There has been a continued campaign against that country, a democratic country, by a non-democratic neighbour ever since that culminated in the horrific attempted full-scale invasion of Ukraine back in 2022. Like many in this chamber, I was not yet elected to Parliament at that time, but as an outside observer I was stunned and horrified by what I was seeing on my screens. I was so greatly impressed by the resilience of the Ukrainian people in the face of unimaginable horror, of unimaginable evil – the incredible determination and resilience. One particular example that will stay with me for a very long time is the report of a very elderly woman who approached an invading soldier in the street and thrust into his pocket a handful of sunflower seeds, sunflowers being one of the most potent symbols of Ukraine’s independence. She said to him, ‘At least when you are in the ground something beautiful will grow out of it.’ We know that many of the invading soldiers from Russia are not there voluntarily – in many cases they too are victims of this war – but the Ukrainian people have so gravely suffered as a result of the evil actions of a foreign dictator.

The Western world has come together. We have stood strong, and most parts of the Western world still stand strong with Ukraine. I spoke this morning of some very distressing things that we have seen emanating out of one supposed ally of Ukraine in the past few days. To treat a people who have been through such unimaginable horror with such disdain and disrespect – to effectively bully these people at their time of greatest need – is despicable. It is pathetic, and it is the act of a coward. You can comment all you want about the clothes that someone wears to a meeting and say that a man should wear a suit, but I think in that meeting we saw a man who was not wearing a suit who was dignified and strong and a suit in search of a man.

There is still much to come, and I still hold onto the hope that all Western allies will come back fully in support of this brave democratic nation. There are many constituents in my region in particular who proudly claim Ukrainian heritage. Indeed there are many people living in my constituency right now who have themselves fled the horrors of the war. I know that when I say that in this chamber and in this Parliament we stand with Ukraine, we are united in doing so. It is my fervent hope that that will always remain the case in this Parliament and in this nation. Slava Ukraini.