Friday, 14 November 2025

 Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (09:55): Last week I had the enormous honour of welcoming Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya to the Victorian Parliament along with the member for Greenvale Mr Walters, the Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs. Sviatlana is the rightly democratically elected leader of Belarus. She was elected in 2020 and only ran for election for president once her husband, who was opposition leader, was denied and banned from running in that election. She ran on a ticket of democracy, pledging to reform the country’s corrupt and broken dictatorship and resign within six months to, in her wake, leave free elections. It was very powerful to meet her and to talk with her about the struggles for freedom in Belarus and also how those struggles are intrinsically linked with the fight for freedom in Ukraine. We took her into this chamber, and it was wonderful to show her around. But the most special moment of the visit came when we were in the Legislative Assembly and by chance a bunch of primary school students from Docklands Primary School were also having a tour at that time. Sviatlana took the opportunity to talk to them to explain what her role is, what the state of democracy in her country is and why places like our Parliament are so special. It was an incredibly moving experience. I hope to continue to work with Victoria’s Belarusian community in advance of their freedom.