Federal Senator Paul Scarr congratulates our own “International Media Mogul”, Jitendra Deo
The Queensland Senator is no stranger to the Multicultural Communities as he graciously frequents respective diaspora community events.
Our Senator friend is an unmistakable father and elderly figure across our multicultural Queensland and beyond and has over the years garnered a lot of respect from community leaders.
A very timely suggestion he made during the Girmit Celebration Speech in the Girmit and Deo Family Foundations event of May 18th, 2024 that “our students in High School should learn more of our Pacific History” noting the over 60 thousand indentured laborers from far away India brought sparingly to Fiji, in the Pacific from 1879 to 1916 .
Senator Scarr passionately and rightly reminisced that “I wonder how proud your ancestors must be to see everything you have achieved. To see everything their descendants have achieved is absolutely spectacular, it is just incredible.”
Many Pacific Community leaders and even us here at your Brisbane Indian Times like to believe that Senator Scarr is our Pacific Man and Multicultural advocate within the echelons of power in Canberra. Even before he entered the Australia Upper House of Parliament and appointed Shadow Assistant Minister for Multicultural Engagement, our friend Senator Paul Scarr has numerous professional and personal firsthand experiences within the Pacific and multicultural communities.
Unlike many sitting Australian Parliamentarian who only visit the Pacific for a few days holiday, Senator Scarr, however for a period lived and worked in the Pacific as a Senior Associate of a major Law Firm with offices in Australia and PNG.
In edifying our beloved budding “International Media Mogul” Jitendra was not just a pleasantry comment of a speaker of the event but Senator Scarr echoing the spirit of his purpose and intent of one of the reason he wanted to be a people’s representative in the Australian Senate when he passionately declared in his maiden speech in Senate on September 10th 2019 that “ One of the driving reasons I sought election to this place was to make it easier, not harder, for Australians to pursue opportunity and create wealth through their own initiative, their own enterprise and their own spirit”
Senator Scarr is, indeed, an endeared friend of us migrants who on few occasions feels our rights are at time intentionally or inadvertently trample upon. To his credit in the same maiden speech, he added shamelessly that “I will always be a fierce defender of the right of the individual to express their views, to hear other people’s opinions and to be sovereign over their own beliefs, thoughts and conscience.”
In concluding one of the best maiden speeches ever delivered by a new member of Parliament the all-inclusive words of wisdom and hope of a true widely respected community elder and father figure to diaspora communities in the multicultural Australia that graciously asserts that “We are all Australians now.”
The Deo family of Brisbane, Queensland, proprietors of the JD Media Corporation, are grateful we Queenslanders can be represented in the Australian Federal Senate by our dear friend, Senator Paul Scarr.
Please read below Senator Scarr full speech at the Girmit Celebration 2024:
Good evening, everyone.
What a wonderful delight to be here with you.
Can I acknowledge the traditional owners and pay my respect to past, present and emerging, and Jitendra to your family and everyone involved in the organisation of this event.
Congratulations, Congratulations to Jitendra and family.
Thank you very much.
I just want to share three reflections with you today.
The first, the over sixty thousand who came from India to Fiji between 1879 and 1916, I wonder how proud your ancestors must be to see everything you have achieved. To see everything their descendants have achieved is absolutely spectacular, it is just incredible.
It has not just been as we heard, have just been the contribution of Fiji, but all the other countries where the diaspora has moved to, including Australia, to have made a wonderful contribution.
I should also say, I acknowledge James as the MP for Stretton and Jon who was here as Mayor of Logan. Cr Frazier and my good friend Pinky Singh, candidate for Mansfield.
I am lucky I do not have to be precocial, I am a Senator for the whole of Queensland, the whole of Queensland, does not matter if you are in Logan, Stretton, in Mansfield or wherever you are, I am your representative. Which makes things easier.
So, congratulations to everyone who received an award earlier today.
The second thought I want to share with you is I think our students in High School should learn more of our Pacific History, right?
There is not enough history of the Pacific taught to children in high school, and I think we should learn more of our Pacific History because it is absolutely fascinating, and this is one of the chapters in the History of Pacific. So, I want to share that thought with you.
Lastly, in relation to our “International Media Mogul”, Jitendra, Congratulations! Multicultural media is just so important in terms of keeping people together, keeping the Diaspora together, informed, pursing issue of key importance to relevant diasporas and I am sure Jitendra, you and your family will just do wonderful job in terms of impetus in sowing this.
