Concetta Fierravanti-Wells has been sworn in as Minister for International Development and Aid, moving from her earlier role as Assistant Minister for Multicultural Affairs.
One of Malcolm Turnbull’s newly promoted Ministers, Senator Fierravanti-Wells believes it is important federal politics becomes more representative of multicultural Australia.
"Forty-seven per cent of us were born overseas or have at least one parent born overseas. Regrettably, our institutions whether it be the parliaments or the public service don't reflect that," Ms Fierravanti-Wells said.
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Senator Fierravanti-Wells grew up in an Italian-speaking family. Her father arrived in the 1950s with no money and no English and got a job at the Port Kembla Steelworks. The Fierravanti family made their home in Wollongong, with young Concetta only learning English when she went to school.
In her maiden speech in 2005, the new Senator Fierravanti-Well said her story was also a story of migration.
‘My family’s journey began on 14 February 1953, when a young man of 24 years of age arrived alone on the docks at Sydney,” she told the Senate.
"He had travelled from Italy. He had left everything he knew and loved, including his fiancée. He spoke no English. His old suitcase carried the dreams and aspirations that had motivated his migration to so far away a land. That man was my dad."
Today her husband John Wells, her brother and two nephews travelled to Canberra for the swearing-in ceremony.
"I am very proud I am very humbled," she said before starting portfolio briefings.
"Even though my father passed away earlier this year and my mother couldn't be here, it was a wonderful day for my whole family."
The new Ministerial work starts immediately.
“I hope to be starting my visits in the Pacific at the end of March,” she said.
Aid won’t be an easy portfolio. Since 2013 international development aid has been cut and the aid agency AusAID has been absorbed back into the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
A recent survey of aid stakeholders by the ANU’s Development Policy Centre found concern by a majority that the quality of Australian aid is deteriorating.
One of the first tasks for Senator Fierravanti-Wells will be to speak to stakeholders.
Watch an extended interview with Senator Fierravanti-Wells:
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