Friday, 14 November 2025

 Anasina GRAY-BARBERIO (Northern Metropolitan) (21:21): (2120) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Premier, and the action I seek is funding investment in preventative programs to address racism at its root, specifically towards the Indian community in the northern and western parts of Victoria. Over the past few weeks my inbox has been filled with shocking stories of abuse, racism and violence experienced by multiple members of the Indian and South Asian diaspora here in Melbourne. One community member told me about an incident he witnessed where a white man in his mid-30s shouted racist slurs at a group of South Asian high school boys in the city, screaming the name Gandhi at them as they were walking down the street. The man then went on to threaten physical violence at the students before throwing a drink at them. In another story, another community member told me about a white man hurling racial slurs and abusive language at an Indian taxidriver who was simply trying to pay for his fuel. When the community member tried to intervene, the man became even more aggressive and started spewing anti-immigration rhetoric around preventing Indians from entering the country.

These are not isolated events, Premier. We are seeing, hearing and reading about a troubling rise in anti-immigrant hate across this country and here in Victoria. Whether it is neo-Nazis and white supremacists openly rallying on the steps of Parliament and calling for migrants to go home or politicians and media singling out the Indian community in public discourse, there is now a very real climate of fear and alienation among South Asian Australians, which is manifesting in everyday violence and abuse. These are just some of the stories that I have been told personally, but how many are out there? How many more community members are scared for their lives because of racist rhetoric that has become so normalised and so ingrained in Australian culture that migrants are being abused on our streets so brazenly?

It is the responsibility of this government, and of all of us in this place, to prevent racism at its root. Our community needs more than reassurance. We need a concrete, funded strategy. What educational initiatives are being deployed in schools and communities to combat prejudice before it takes hold? What public campaigns are actively combating anti-immigrant sentiment and calling out this specific form of racism? Indian Australians are a vital part of our community. They deserve to feel safe, protected and valued, not to be targeted or racially profiled. The Australian race discrimination commissioner recently said:

Racism is a fire. Once lit, it spreads, igniting more hate in its path.

Premier, what are you doing to put out this fire, and better yet, stopping it from being lit in the first place?