‘Proud to have Melbourne as the capital of the Indian diaspora’ Premier Daniel Andrews opens up to The Indian Sun on his promises for the Indian community as well as his blueprint for safeguarding the people of Victoria. At a festive event earlier you had promised to bring to life a cultural precinct for Indians in Victoria. What is the timeline on that project and what happens to the existing Little India precinct in Dandenong? The first thing to say is that we are so proud to have Melbourne and Victoria as the capital of the Indian diaspora. There are more members of the Indian Australian community in Melbourne and Victoria than any other part of the Australian nation. So in a sense it is long overdue for us to have an Indian cultural precinct to host events, to tell the story of the Indian migration to our city and to our state, and reflect upon the great contribution that the Indian community makes in politics, research, medicine, academia, business, trade, and in our multiculturalism, sharing Indian culture and heritage, celebrating Indian culture and heritage. A space that belongs uniquely to the Indian community is very important. Now a lot of work will have to go into that. It won’t necessarily happen in weeks and months, it will take some time. We have to get this right. We already have a Little India precinct at Dandenong and there have been some significant challenges in terms of some of the changes to the environment. Labour has worked closely with the traders there and we want to continue to do that. We also want to make sure we get the best possible space where the largest number of Melburnians and Victorians, can come and share in the celebration of Indian culture. The key point here is to actually listen, not to tell the Indian community what they want but to listen to what the Indian community needs. theindiansun.au/proud-to-have-melbourne-as-the-capital-of-the-indian-diaspora/
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 00:30:00 +0000
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