Thursday, 2 April 2026

 Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (09:53): Generations of migrants have built this country as we see it today. I am proud to represent a part of Melbourne home to people of many different cultural backgrounds, including the largest Chinese diaspora community in the country. People come to Australia for a whole range of reasons, many fleeing conflict – in all cases, people looking for a better life for their families and loved ones. Some people are trying to blame migrants for the struggles that people are facing, but the reality is migrants are not taking people’s jobs, migrant communities are not the cause of the housing crisis and multicultural communities are not the cause of the rising cost of living. These pressures are driven by corporations who have captured governments in this country and are making them bend to their will. The fact is that immigration over the years in this country has literally built the homes that we live in. Imagine for a moment our healthcare services, our small businesses, our communities, if it were not for the contributions of people from all over the world who have called this country home and who have built family and put down roots here in Australia. We would all be worse off if we turned our backs on people coming to this country for a better life, whether they are newly arrived or whether they have been here for years. So instead, I say welcome.