Mr Ashok Jacob has been reappointed as Chair of the Australia India Council and will be joined by three new Board Members: Lisa Singh, Ted Baillieu AO and Matthew Hayden AM.
Highlights:
- Mr Ashok Jacob has been reappointed as Chair of the Australia India Council.
- Lisa Singh, Ted Baillieu AO and Matthew Hayden AM are the newly appointed members.
- Labor leader Singh was Australia's first federal parliamentarian of Indo-Fijian ancestry.
Lisa Singh, who will serve as the deputy chair of the Council, represented Tasmania in the Federal Senate from 2010 to 2019.
Listen to the interview with Lisa Singh:
In 2014, the President of India conferred on her the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman.
In an interview, Ms Singh told SBS Hindi what she believed she can bring to the role.
Lisa Singh was the first senator of Indian origin in Australia. She says over the time she tried to build on people to people links between Australia and India.
"I think that's really the strength that I bring to the table of the Australia India Council board," says Ms Singh.
The granddaughter of an Indo-Fijian member of the Parliament of Fiji, Ms Singh says Indian diaspora in Australia continues to amaze.
ALP senator for Tasmania Lisa Singh delivers her maiden speech to the Senate in Canberra, Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2011. Source: AAP Image/Alan Porritt
"I mean it's the fastest-growing diaspora here in Australia.
Of course, Indians that choose to settle here in Australia recognise this is a very colourfully multicultural country. So I'm sure they feel like at home. But, at the same time, they bring to Australia the values that they hold from India.
"Some of those values are shared. Things like us both being democracies, understanding and supporting the rule of law, these are all shared values, and I think that's what makes Indians who settle in Australia such a great fit."
Lisa Singh opines that India does not need to be pitched against China for the "Australia-India relationship has been growing now for a number of years regardless of their relationship with China.
Labor Senator Lisa Singh at a Senate public hearing into the arrangements for the postal survey into same sex marriage at Parliament House, September 7, 2017. Source: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
"I don't think we should sort of necessarily pitch one up against the other," she says.
"I think that our relationship with India has become more and more important as India's economy has continued to rise, and I think Australia has recognised that it is both in Australia's national interest and India's national interest for us to forging partnership on that basis both on an economic front and on the social front."
