It has been over a week since Scott Morrison took over the leadership of the Liberal party and became Australia’s sixth Prime Minister in last nine years.
Members of the Indian community in Australia expect the new prime minister will be able to bring in few reforms and are keen to find out his stand on the bilateral Australia-India relations.
Perth resident Ved Tewari, who is the National Vice President of the Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry told SBS Hindi, "It's very important for the Government to be stable. The Prime Minister should stay for their whole term. Having instability also affects the economy and everytime the government changes there are expenses that ultimately people have to pay for. Basically, Western Australia is mining driven and people are really struggling. People want that the government should be stable and the economy should boom.
Mr Tewari says that the expectation is that the government will look after all the communities and treat everyone equally.
Ved Tewari Source: Ved Tewari
"The disruptive changes, like the citizenship changes that were proposed, naturally our community was not very happy with that. We are hoping that Prime Minister Scott Morrison will bring some good new changes, learn from previous lessons, and take our country Australia ahead, that’s what we wish for," he added.
Well-known Sydney poet and President of the Indian Crescent Society of Australia, Abbas Alvi said, "The Indian community here is quite big. Taking that into consideration, I would certainly want that the new government should think, what more can be done for our community."
Mr Alvi also mentioned that citizenship backlog and said he would like the government to process these applications quickly.
Abbas Alvi Source: Abbas Alvi
"The students who come here, they should be given more visa flexibility quickly", says Mr Alvi.
"They should be given some provisions in their visas so that they can study and the number of hours that they are allowed to work should be increased so that they can earn some money as well. The Indian community I think certainly wants these changes."
President of the International Law Association Victorian Chapter and Melbourne based lawyer Molina Asthana is waiting to see what trajectory the new dispensation takes towards India Australia relationship among other issues.
"We will have to see what is their attitude towards the migrant population. In particular, what will they do for the Indian community especially on issues like parents visa?," Ms Asthana said.
Molina Swarup Asthana Source: Molina Swarup Asthana
"I also want to see what they do about the recently released India Paper. Will their policy change and what will be their relationship with India, which sectors they would like to focus on and what importance will they attach to their relationship with India?" she added.
