Thursday, 31 July 2025

 Moira DEEMING (Western Metropolitan) (10:00): This week I went to visit one of my constituents, who was recovering from the trauma and physical injuries that he sustained in a catastrophic violent attack by machete-wielding youths. Mr Saurabh Anand came here from India seven years ago, and he related to me just how much he loved this country. He loved our culture. He loved that we enjoy cricket, like him, and that he had built up a career here in IT. He was just sitting on a bench at the supermarket talking to his family, looking at the same sky that his family were looking at, when he was set upon. The trouble that he has is that of the five youths who attacked him, two are on bail, one is in remand and one is on the run. He cannot understand why it is that the youth in Victoria feel so brazen as to do this to people. In interviews he has had his face blurred out because he is afraid that they might be locals, and he was devastated to hear that the tough bail laws that he had heard about had not actually really come into effect. I just want to say thank you very much to Mr Saurabh for still praising Australia and still loving us.