Shashi Bhatti migrated from Hoshiarpur (Punjab) to Australia in 1989 and since then, has been settled in the Victorian country town of Morwell.
He married his wife Daljit after arriving in Australia, and together, they have raised three sons in their home town of Morwell. At the start, Mr Bhatti took on a variety of jobs including a machine operator, fork lift operator and he even worked at the local petrol station. Whilst working hard to support a young family, Mr Bhatti studied Accounting at the local TAFE College.
Having experienced periods of unemployment, Mr Bhatti says, he knows first-hand how difficult it can be for families to make ends meet, and he has never forgotten how difficult those times were.
Mr Bhatti became an Australian Citizen in 1992, going on to forge his identity as a proud Gippslander. In recent times, he has worked as an Accounting professional, but has always had close ties with the Australian Labor Party.
A sudden vacancy in the seat of the Gippsland almost halfway through the 2016 federal election campaign has given Mr Bhatti a chance to enter the political arena. Here is an interview with Mr Shashi Bhatti, the labor candidate for Gippsland, in conversation with SBS Punjabi's Preetinder Grewal
Source: Supplied
