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Citizenship community meeting - Springvale VIC

Australian Labor MPs Julian Hill, Clare O'Neil and Mark Dreyfus listening to community leaders speak at the Citizenship forum in Springvale VIC. (Photo: L Cox)
Australian Labor MPs Julian Hill, Clare O'Neil and Mark Dreyfus listening to community leaders speak at the Citizenship forum in Springvale VIC. (Photo: L Cox)

25 July 2017

Last night Australian Labor MP's Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs), Clare O'Neil (Hotham) and Julian Hill (Bruce) hosted a public meeting to hear constituents concerns over the proposed changes to the Citizenship Act.

The Springvale City Hall meeting was attended by several hundred people wanting to hear the Labor MPs' advice on what people can do to stop the legislation from passing. The key issues are

The three MP's addressed the meeting to explain the agenda and introduce the guest speakers, leaders and representatives from various ethnic and community groups.

Each speaker explained how members of their community would be affected, for example uneducated women or refugees whose schooling had been either ignored or disrupted due to war or living in a refugee camp for many years. People without formal education may be able to speak English but being illiterate in their mother tongue makes it more difficult to learn to read and write in a second language.

Likewise many migrants in previous decades have arrived with little or no English but have set up successful businesses or completed tertiary education when given opportunities to learn.

Among those who spoke were:

Australian Labour MPs and community leaders at the Citizenship forum in Springvale VIC. (Photo: L Cox)
Australian Labour MPs and community leaders at the Citizenship forum in Springvale VIC. (Photo: L Cox)

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