Dai Le
Fowler · Independent · Australia
“Sometimes it is measured in language, in cultural unfamiliarity and in the absence of services that actually reflect the community they are supposed to serve. My second amendment embeds a requirement that appropriate treatment must be linguistically and culturally accessible at the person's geographical location.”
“The language a person speaks at home is one of the most important factors in how they express their needs, understand their rights and advocate for themselves or their loved ones. Language forms the bridge between all of us socially, culturally and emotionally.”
“by leave—I move amendments (1) to (3) circulated in my name together: (1) Schedule 1, item 4, page 4 (line 23), after "circumstances", insert "(other than the person's linguistic environment)".”
“Australians living with disability deserve a scheme that is trusted, well managed and sustainable. But sustainability and financial viability cannot come at the cost of fairness, and they certainly should not be achieved by pushing the most vulnerable participants into greater uncertainty or into a system of bureaucracy that is harder to…”
“The system must be able to respond to the lived experience of people on the ground, not just assumptions built into centrally designed guidelines. Taken together, these amendments rest on one principle: the NDIS must be as diverse as the people it serves.”
“They are an attempt to make it work for the people who will be hurt most if we get this wrong. I have moved these amendments not to stop reform but to make sure reform is fair, inclusive, practical and safe for people living with disability from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and people from low socioeconomic background…”
The complete record
Every one of 371 lines we hold for Dai Le, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 1 of 8.
“My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. Minister, you've written to the ACCC and the AER about retailer conduct on fixed charges. From today, households are promised three hours of so-called free power from 11 am to 2 pm, when most Fowler families are at work and, outside that window, still paying fixed charges and full price. Can the minister guarantee that this isn't a 'give with one hand and take with the other' scheme and that no household energy bill will go up?”
“The system must be able to respond to the lived experience of people on the ground, not just assumptions built into centrally designed guidelines. Taken together, these amendments rest on one principle: the NDIS must be as diverse as the people it serves. Its rules and processes must be readable, reachable and relevant for all Australians, whether they speak English as their first language or their second. For many families in communities like Fowler, those challenges are even more compounded. These amendments do not undermine the intent of reform; they strengthen it. They make sure that, in the pursuit of a more sustainable scheme, we do not create a less fair one. I urge the House to support these amendments so that reform actually achieves a better scheme, not just a better bottom line.”
“If support is not culturally or linguistically appropriate, then, for many families, it is not truly accessible. The current rule, which says treatment may be appropriate regardless of whether a person's individual circumstances restrict them from accessing it, is deeply concerning. It allows the scheme to describe a service as appropriate even if it is physically out of reach, linguistically inaccessible or culturally out of step with the community. For a diverse, low-income electorate like Fowler, that is a recipe for exclusion. My third amendment removes the provision that allows the scheme to rely too heavily on generic, one-size-fits-all criteria without enough weight given to the specific needs of individuals and communities.”
“Sometimes it is measured in language, in cultural unfamiliarity and in the absence of services that actually reflect the community they are supposed to serve. My second amendment embeds a requirement that appropriate treatment must be linguistically and culturally accessible at the person's geographical location. This is not a minor add on. It is about whether a family in an electorate like Fowler has access to support services close to where they live and, just as importantly, whether those supports are culturally and linguistically safe. In multicultural and multifaith communities like mine, many refugees and migrants still carry deep distrust of government systems. Service providers have told me they face the additional challenge of helping families navigate cultural taboos around trauma, neurodivergence, disability and care needs.”
“The language a person speaks at home is one of the most important factors in how they express their needs, understand their rights and advocate for themselves or their loved ones. Language forms the bridge between all of us socially, culturally and emotionally. If the system ignores that, the result is very likely to be inaccurate assessments of a person's function, capacity, their needs and their access to support. The linguistic environment is not incidental; it goes to the very core of whether a person is able to equitably participate in the NDIS. Much like the rural and regional communities who have long called out the gap between policy made in Canberra and the reality on the ground, outer suburban multicultural communities like Fowler face their own version of being left behind. Distance is not always measured in kilometres.”
“Australians living with disability deserve a scheme that is trusted, well managed and sustainable. But sustainability and financial viability cannot come at the cost of fairness, and they certainly should not be achieved by pushing the most vulnerable participants into greater uncertainty or into a system of bureaucracy that is harder to understand, harder to access and even further removed from the real lives of NDIS participants in communities like Fowler. Australia prides itself on being a nation of many languages, cultures and beliefs. As elected representatives, we have a duty and responsibility to make laws and policies that reflect that reality. That is why my first amendment makes it clear that, when we talk about a person's 'environmental circumstances', we cannot exclude their linguistic environment.”
“They are an attempt to make it work for the people who will be hurt most if we get this wrong. I have moved these amendments not to stop reform but to make sure reform is fair, inclusive, practical and safe for people living with disability from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and people from low socioeconomic backgrounds—people who already face additional barriers when trying to navigate a government system that is highly complicated, even for those who are well-resourced and speak English as their first language. As I said in my second reading amendment, I support and welcome the stronger integrity measures for NDIS service providers and plan managers outlined in schedule 2 of the bill. The NDIS must be protected from fraud, rorting and misuse.”
“by leave—I move amendments (1) to (3) circulated in my name together: (1) Schedule 1, item 4, page 4 (line 23), after "circumstances", insert "(other than the person's linguistic environment)". (2) Schedule 1, item 92, page 35 (line 30), at the end of subsection 25A(1), add: ; and (d) is linguistically and culturally accessible at the person's geographical location. (3) Schedule 1, item 92, page 35 (line 31) to page 36 (line 4), omit subsection 25A(2). In my second reading contribution, I raised serious concerns about how the 'appropriate treatment' provisions in the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 would play out for families in communities like mine. My three amendments today go directly to those concerns. They are not an attempt to delay or derail reform.”
“I congratulate them. What I saw that day was a perfect reflection of Fowler. We are one of the most multicultural communities in the entire country. Our community is built on the resilience of people who arrive from every corner of the globe, many with very little, carrying heavy burdens but holding on to hope. I live and breathe this every day. A day like this teaches our young people to be proud of their heritage, to respect our differences and to be grateful that we have all found a home in this wonderful country. We are one, but we are many. So my message to the students of Liverpool Boys High and right across Fowler is simple: be proud of your heritage, as well as being proud Australians.”
“Refugee Week was held from 14 to 20 June this year, with the theme of 'A Million Stories'. I have lived one of those million stories myself. As the first member of the House who is of Vietnamese refugee heritage, I'm humbled to stand here today. I joined the students of Liverpool Boys High School for their harmony celebration in Refugee Week. I want to thank the school community for their warm invitation. I watched these young men proudly showcase who they are, Arabic drumming, Bollywood dancing, traditional Samoan dancing and proudly displaying cultural flags. What makes this even more remarkable is that the school is doing all of this from a temporary campus while their own school is being rebuilt. To put on a celebration with such pride and energy under those conditions is a real credit to the students, the teachers and the families.”
“May their memory live on in the hearts of their family and in the way Cabramatta and Fowler came together as one that day.”
“In the days that followed, the community wrapped its arms around Sok and Vundy. People came forward with help, donations and prayers, not because they were asked but because they could not bear to let a grieving family stand alone. A tragedy like this leaves more than one heart broken. There are others touched by that day who will carry it quietly for the rest of their lives. They are in my thoughts, too. I place on record my deepest thanks to every person who rushed to help—every first responder, every neighbour and everyone who has surrounded this family with love. To Sok and Vundy: we remember Katherine and Harry in this parliament. Our community mourns with you, stands with you and will carry you in the days and years ahead. May Katherine and Harry be remembered always.”
“Like so many families in Fowler, they worked hard and sacrificed quietly, pouring everything they had into their children. They are exactly the kind of family that makes our community strong: humble, hardworking and full of love. Fowler is one of the most multicultural places in Australia. We come from many countries. We speak many languages. We hold different faiths and different traditions, but, last Wednesday, none of that mattered. Strangers did not stand back. They ran forward. Motorists stopped their cars. Members of the public worked together to lift the vehicle. Others performed CPR. People did everything humanly possible to save Katherine and Harry. That is what being Australian truly means. We come from every corner of the world, but, in a moment of need, we stand together as one.”
“I rise today with a heavy heart to honour two beautiful children from our community, Katherine and Harry. Katherine was five years old. Her baby brother was 14 months old. They were taken from us far too soon after the devastating accident in Cabramatta last Wednesday afternoon. This statement is, above all, to honour them: two precious children, deeply loved by their parents, Sok Ram and Vundy Tha. That very day, Katherine had received an award at kindergarten. Harry was still a baby, with his whole life ahead of him. In one unthinkable moment, Sok and Vundy lost both of their children. Our whole community has felt the weight of that heartbreak. Sok came to Australia from Cambodia in 2018 to build a better life. Vundy, also born in Cambodia, arrived in 2003.”
“If this government truly believes that no-one is left behind, it must follow its own expert advice. Raise JobSeeker. Bring people above the poverty line. The people of Fowler deserve a fair go.”
“While wages have grown far more strongly this century—and we've just heard of the increased wages for childcare workers, which is fantastic—across four reports, the committee has said that the JobSeeker payment is below the poverty line. It recommended lifting it to around 90 per cent of the age pension. That is about $272 more a fortnight. The committee also showed how to pay for it responsibly through fairer tax concessions, better targeted spending and increases over time. In a community like Fowler, that advice would reduce deep poverty and give people a fair chance to find work, study and retrain. Instead, the government has relied on routine indexation and left the payment below the poverty line. That hits communities like Fowler the most.”
“Parents decide which bill to pay. People skip meals. Households fall behind on rent because their income does not stretch far enough. A payment that once carried a single person through a short gap between jobs now has to cover children, high rents, fuel that is still expensive and energy prices as well. Families in Fowler are carrying that burden. All the while, the government repeats its motto: no-one left behind. We hear it in speeches and at press conferences, but, in Fowler, thousands of people look at that slogan against their bank balance and know that they're being left behind. The government has been given clear advice. Its own Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee found that JobSeeker has fallen well below changes in living standards.”
“In Fowler, more than 13,000 people rely on payments like JobSeeker and youth allowance. They are families in Prairiewood and Cabramatta. They are young people in Bonnyrigg and Liverpool. They are looking for work and trying to stay afloat. For many, JobSeeker is not a choice. It has become the main income for whole families because a tough job market has left them no other option. People in Fowler are doing it tougher than most. Nationally, unemployment sits at around 4.5 per cent. In the Fairfield local government area, which covers most of my electorate, it is around 7.5 per cent. That is three points higher than the national average. There are more people out of work and more people relying on a payment that has not kept up with the real cost of living. Across Western Sydney, that pressure is felt every day.”
“They want the same fair go that the rest of New South Wales already enjoys, to get to work without going broke, to care for their families without counting every kilometre and to know that the country they helped build is planning for their future, not just patching over their present. I will vote for this bill and support it because my community needs the relief and I will never stand in its way, but I will keep asking the question it sent me here to ask: where is the long-term plan? The people of Fowler have fought hard for every cent of help they have ever received. They have earned more than another bandaid. They need a government that will build them something lasting, a future that is more secure, more affordable and more connected.”
“I will keep pushing for the New South Wales government and this government to stop treating an east-west connection as something for some day and to commit to it, because connecting people to jobs, to study and to each other is not a luxury. It is how a community gets ahead, grows and thrives. So I will press this government to make fairness for Western Sydney and south-western Sydney part of the deal every single time it puts money on the table. Let me finish where I started, with my community. For too long, my community was treated as a seat that could be taken for granted. We were promised the buses, the trains and the investment. It went somewhere else. So let me be clear about what the people of Fowler want.”
“It does not run through the suburbs my community already lives in—places like Liverpool, Warwick Farm, Cabramatta, Canley Vale, Wetherill Park or Fairfield. Our rail network was built to run one way—into the city and back out again. It was never built to connect our suburbs to each other or to the new jobs out west. The case for an east-west rail link is not new. It was identified years ago in the very studies that built the case for the city deal as one of the connections our region would need, linking the new airport through to Parramatta. But it has never been funded. It has been left as a line on a map and a 'some day' project while my community waits.”
“The Commonwealth already helps fund transport across Western Sydney through the Western Sydney City Deal and the projects around the new airport. I'm asking this government to sit down with the New South Wales government and fund frequent local bus services for the suburbs that people already live in. Buses can be running in months, not decades. Every family that can leave their car at home is a family that can stop being held hostage by the price of petrol and, hopefully, can contribute to a cleaner environment. Second, give us an east-west rail connection. The Commonwealth is helping to fund an $11 billion metro to the new Western Sydney airport. It runs from St Marys to the airport and to the new city of Bradfield, and that is welcome. But that line serves the new growth areas.”
“But it has put just $10 million into even studying whether we could rebuild our ability to make more of our own fuel—$10 million to study a weakness that has been growing for 20 years. That tells me we are still managing the symptom. We are not yet curing the cause. I'll try and be constructive. I don't think it's enough to always point to a problem. My hope is that my solutions are considered and taken on board by the government. There are two that I'm asking this government to take seriously. First, give us regular local buses—not a promise for 10 years from now but buses people can actually rely on soon. Give us a service that runs often enough so that a mum can, hopefully, leave the car at home or a student can get to TAFE without begging for a lift.”
“We cannot stop a conflict on the other side of the world or control what happens to the ships that carry our fuel across the ocean. That is true. Here is what we can control. We can decide how exposed our country and economy are when those shocks hit. Right now, we are far more exposed than we should be. We are the only country in the International Energy Agency that has never held the 90 days of fuel reserves we are supposed to. So, when something goes wrong far away, the price at the bowser in Cabramatta moves almost straightaway, with very little standing between my community and that shock. The government has put aside $3.2 billion for an emergency fuel reserve. That is sensible, and I welcome it.”
“I know that many businesses are trying so hard to hold back on passing on those costs to a lot of families who are their customers. I support this bill. It continues some of the relief that started with the halving. It softens the next step, instead of letting families fall off a cliff edge. I will be glad to support it. But this bill is a bandaid. It is a bandaid my community needs right now, and I recognise that. But it sits on top of a problem we have ignored for far too long. My community is asking me a simple question: is there a plan, or are we going to be right back here in a year's time doing all of this again? Let me explain why we keep ending up here. People deserve to understand that. We cannot control everything.”
“The Treasury Laws Amendment (Fuel Excise Relief No. 2) Bill 2026 manages what happens next. Instead of letting the fuel excise snap back overnight, it reduces the excise and the equivalent customs duty on most fuels by 30.4 per cent below the normal rate. That relief runs from 1 July 2026 until the day before the next indexation date, which is currently expected to be 2 August 2026. For petrol and diesel, that works out to about 16c a litre off the excise during that period. Now, 16c a litre might sound modest in this building, but, for a family filling up once or twice a week, it adds up quickly. And for a small business running vans, trucks or utes, it can be the difference between holding their prices steady or passing the cost on to customers who are already doing it tough.”
“So my community drives, and then it pays again. They pay tolls, they pay registration and they pay insurance. Put it all together, and families in electorates like mine are spending thousands of dollars a year just to get to work, to study and to look after their own families, not because they're doing anything wrong but because, in practice, there is no option. Mine is also a community where the majority of us speak a language other than English at home. It is a community built by migrants and refugees who arrived with very little, built businesses, raised families and asked for nothing more than a fair go. They work hard, and they simply want a country and a government that works as hard for them. Let me turn to what this bill actually does, in plain terms. The three-month halving of the fuel excise is coming to an end.”
“That is something we do not talk about enough in this place—the amount of unpaid care that happens in households across Fowler is absolutely dependent on those carers being able to continue to fill up their car. It is the daughter driving her elderly parents to the doctor. It is the family getting a relative with disability to their services. It is one household holding up three generations. And almost all of that care happens behind the wheel of a car. For these families, public transport is not a real choice. In my community a reliable public transport system is close to non-existent. Whether we are talking about buses, trains or metro, the services are too far apart. The routes do not go where people actually need to go, and a shift worker cannot build their life around a bus that might not come.”
“I was glad that the government finally listened to what I and the people of Fowler had been calling for. Prices dropped almost straightaway, and workers, families, truck drivers and tradies right across western and south-western Sydney got some breathing room on a cost they simply cannot avoid. I do not take the relief for granted and won't play politics with something that helps my community pay their bills, but I want this House to understand why it matters so much more in an electorate like mine. In Fowler, the car is not a luxury; it is survival. People in my community drive because there's no real alternative. They drive to work, often to jobs that start before the sun comes up or finish long after it goes down. They drive to university and to TAFE, and they drive to care for the people they love.”
“We speak in thousands, millions and billions and percentages in this House. But at home it looks like something much smaller and much more human. It looks like a mum in Cabramatta at six in the morning filling up her car before the school run, the drive to her own mother's medical appointment and then work. It looks like a young apprentice in Canley Vale watching the fuel light come on, working out whether he can make it to payday. It looks like a small-business owner in Wetherill Park with two vans on the road watching the bowser and deciding whether this is a good month or a hard one. That is who I'm speaking for today. When the government announced in March that it would halve the fuel excise for three months, I welcomed it and so did my community. The cut from 1 April to 30 June made a real and immediate difference at the bowser.”
“I will support any serious policy that gets us there, but I will not congratulate the government for a plan that does not guarantee a fair share for Fowler, does not prioritise growth areas and does not fix the workforce, cost and tax barriers holding back construction. My constituents deserve more than slogans. They deserve a housing system that works for them in their streets, in their suburbs and in their lifetime.”
“The independent Grattan Institute examined billions in federal grants and found a clear pattern: government held and marginal seats received far more than the rest, while worthy projects elsewhere missed out. This is not one side of politics. Both major parties, federal and state, have done it for years. Fowler knows how this feels. For years it was treated as a safe seat, and a safe seat is one that gets taken for granted. Roads, schools and hospitals should be funded on need, not on how a seat is likely to vote. My community should not have to become marginal just to be heard. I want more social and affordable housing, better infrastructure and a fair chance for young people to own a home and for families to rent securely.”
“Growth areas like Fowler carry some of the highest housing stress in the country. Our infrastructure is already stretched. South-west Sydney is one of the fastest-growing regions in the nation. We are not starting from zero; we are starting from behind. Households spend more than 30 per cent of their income on rent—sometimes 40 per cent. People come into my office in tears sometimes because they can't afford rent or don't have a house to live in. This points to a deeper problem. At every election, the major parties pour funding into the seats they want to win, but governing for all Australians has to mean more than a chequebook at election time.”
“That is close to half the price of an average new home of about $1.2 million; half the cost before a family even moves in goes to the government. If the government is serious about affordability, this is where it should start. Working Australians are taxed when they earn, taxed when they shop, taxed when they drink, taxed when they drive and taxed on the very roof they sleep under. Then they're offered a small tax cut and told to be grateful. But a small cut does not touch the half a million dollars built into the price of a home. Real relief means lifting the burden of the homes our families are trying to build. There is also the $2 billion Local Infrastructure Fund for the roads and services new homes need. How it's shared out matters because not all councils start from the same place.”
“Homes are built by tradies, and we do not have enough of them. Yet from January this year the government halved apprenticeship support for many trades, cutting the payment to both apprentice and employer from $5,000 to $2,500. It says it's protected housing and construction apprentices—and, on paper, it has. But our building industry draws on the whole skills pipeline, and employer groups warn that these cuts will deepen the shortage. So when the government promises 55,000 homes, I ask, 'With which workforce?' In Fowler, housing projects are already stalling under the rising cost of construction, materials and labour. The biggest cost of all is one we rarely talk about—tax. On a new house and land package in Sydney, government taxes, charges and regulatory costs now add up to around $576,000, according to the Housing Industry Association.”
“Housing is an important issue in my community in south-west Sydney. The government throws around big numbers—$47 billion in housing investment, $6.3 billion for infrastructure, a promise of 55,000 social and affordable homes. It sounds impressive, but my community does not live in a press release; they live in overcrowded houses, in garages turned into bedrooms and in rentals where the rent rises faster than the pay. The government keeps promising 1.2 million new homes by the middle of 2029. But its own expert body, the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council, forecasts a shortfall of 262,000 homes, with no state on track to build its share. The government has already shown it cannot keep its word on housing, so why should Fowler believe this time is different? Announcements do not lay a single brick.”
“My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, the capital gains tax and negative gearing changes announced in the May budget were significant and market-sensitive measures—so significant that your government has already walked parts of them back in recent days. Can the Prime Minister give the House a strong assurance that no government MP or their close relations used prior knowledge of those changes for private financial benefit before they were made public?”
“It brought the young people together and small businesses together to showcase what the community are doing in Chipping Norton. As we all know, my electorate of Fowler is very multicultural, so organisations such as BaytulHuda play a very vital role in strengthening social cohesion and building understanding across different communities. They believe very much that their organisation is there to bridge their communities with the wider Australian community in the electorate of Fowler. I would like to thank the leaders, elders and teachers and stallholders and volunteers at the BaytulHuda house of guidance.”
“I'm really happy to stand here and to share some of the cultural activities that took place in my community in Fowler last Sunday. I joined Club Marconi in Bossley Park to mark the Italian Australian community's celebration of Italian Republic Day, which this year was the 80th anniversary of the Italian Republic. It was really great to be surrounded by Club Marconi's board, Mayor Frank Carbone and our community there as we marked this very important culture and tradition in our community. I also went to Chipping Norton to join in with the Alawite Muslim community for their market day, organised by the BaytulHuda house of guidance, a not-for-profit volunteer organisation supporting the Alawite families to practice their faith, preserve their Arabic language and their culture.”
“Yet this budget cuts the one incentive designed to bring those workers in. So my questions to the minister are these: how does cutting apprenticeship support help employers in communities like mine take on and keep apprentices; why would any government that says housing is top priority make it harder, not easier, to train people who will build the homes; and what will this government do to back the small- and family businesses who give our young people their start instead of giving them every reason to pull back?”
“So the cafe, the restaurant and the family kitchen that gives a young person their very first job now gets half the help to train them. In the middle of a skills shortage, how does that make any sense at all? There are no apprentices without an employer being willing and able to sign the training contract and to carry the risk. Most employers in my community are small- and family businesses carrying every new cost and every new rule themselves. The budget makes the risk heavier, not lighter, at the very moment the pipeline is already fragile. The contradiction sits at the heart of this budget. You cannot build 1.2 million homes without the workers to build them. As the Housing Industry Association puts it: Business as usual will not deliver the trades numbers Australia needs.”
“Let me make a broader point: apprenticeship support is not a handout. It is how a small or family business builds its own future by training the next generation in the skills it needs to grow. When we back a small business to take on an apprentice, we are building skills and capability in our young people. That is not a cost to the country; it's an investment in it. This is not about construction only. For example, take hospitality, an industry that turns over around $66 billion a year and employs close to a million Australians. It has the youngest workforce in the country. From January this year, the support for apprentices and trainees in hospitality was cut in half, from about $5,000 to a maximum of $2½ thousand.”
“That is 37 per cent of our workforce against around 26 per cent across New South Wales and 28 per cent across Australia. Here is what makes this cut bite even harder in my community. Far fewer of our young people go to university. For so many families in my electorate, a trade is not a backup plan; it is the plan. It is the pathway into secure work and a good life, so, when this government cuts apprenticeship support, it is pulling the ladder up on the very community that relies on it most. I saw the hunger for myself last month after the Fowler Future Fest, our careers expo. The Housing Industry Association stall was one of the busiest, crowded with young people who want a trade. They want to earn while they learn and build a real career. Those young people are exactly who this cut lets down.”
“The peak body for the home building industry, the Housing Industry Association, said it plainly. It welcomed parts of the budget but warned that cutting this incentive risks discouraging employers from taking on apprentices, especially the firms already training young people at scale. As the HIA put it, this budget is one hand giving while the other hand takes away. Builders and traders have told us for years that they cannot find enough skilled workers and, when they do, they struggle to keep them. Apprentices start but do not finish. Projects are delayed because the people are not there. Cutting support now does not fix that; it makes it worse. This is not abstract in my electorate of Fowler. On the last census, more than a third of employed people—over 21,000 workers—were in machinery operating, labouring and trades occupations.”
“The government calls this the most ambitious and important budget in decades, but there is nothing ambitious about a budget that cuts the support we use to train the very workers we need to build this country. This budget confirms that, from January next year, the Key Apprenticeship Program incentive pay to employers will be cut from $5,000 to $4,000. That is a 20 per cent cut, and it falls on the exact trades the government says matter most: clean energy and housing construction. We are in the middle of a housing crisis—if we don't already know it. The government has promised 1.2 million new homes by 2029, and they're already not meeting that number. The government's decided to walk away from training apprentices and make it harder for employers to take one on.”
“In a community like ours, that is not how you build aspiration; it's how you crush it. I will keep saying it in this place. Please reverse the Job-ready Graduates and invest properly in our young people, in traineeships and in infrastructure to make them reach for their dreams easier. Our young people in Fowler are job ready. It is time for this parliament to be future ready. We told them to dream big, and at Fowler Future Fest they did exactly that. Now it is up to us to make sure those dreams never turn into debt.”
“A special thanks to Cabra Bowls, Amazon and Rotary for donating prizes and giving their time on the day; to the local businesses and organisations that believed in Fowler Future Fest and showed up for our young people—Fred's One Stop Shop, Yanni Boutros of Al Basha Bakery, Street University, our Fairfield St John Ambulance volunteers, the Australian Defence Force, our local SES unit—and, most of all, to our teachers, who brought nearly 1,500 students to the showground that day and who, year after year, refuse to let our young people's potential go to waste. Thank you. This is why we must ensure our system makes it easier for young people to aspire and succeed. The job-ready graduates scheme has loaded some of the heaviest student debts in the country onto the students who can least afford them.”
“I would like to also thank Louise Azzopardi and the Truckin' for Life crew for giving their time and their heart to our young people. I thank many of the local talent who sat on our panel and shared their own stories of struggle and success, including Deputy Mayor Kevin Lam; Ben Stewart, founder and CEO of Evolution Laser Clinic; Rich Tran from Ultrafade; Ronya Gilani of Rilanea; Krisha Valencia; Christian Barac; Anthony Nguyen; Jesse Sene-Lefao; MJ from Ministry Barbers; local artist Alicia Varas; George Kalisperis; Maryana Khoshaba; and Mustafa Al Jaboore.”
“Many of these students are the first in their family to finish school, let alone to go to TAFE or university. They come from families working multiple jobs, squeezed by the cost of living and by housing stress. In a community where most families speak a language other than English at home, our young people carry the hopes of parents and grandparents who gave up everything for the chance this new generation holds. For once they could see themselves in the person standing in front of them in the hall, telling them that they could do this. That is what Fowler Future Fest was about—possibility, belonging and opportunity. It was the simple but powerful message that dreaming and achieving belongs to them too. A day like this takes many hands and many hearts.”
“It was practical, hands on and community driven. NIDA, the National Institute of Dramatic Art, was there, as was the Fashion Institute, the Housing Industry Association, Western Sydney University and many other universities, training providers, small businesses and not-for-profit organisations. Under one roof, our students could see real pathways into technology, the creative industries, the trades, health, business and community service. It was a memorable and very impactful day. Young people came up to me and thanked my team, the mayor and everyone who gave them this opportunity. One student told me that she could finally decide what subject to study and what to do at university. Another said our panel had inspired him to start his own business. Some left excited about the trades, others about a future in social work.”