My journey with the Greens began long before I officially joined the party in 2014. In the years leading up to that, I was already volunteering, drawn in by something I hadn’t found elsewhere in Australian politics, a willingness to stand on principle, even when it cost.
2009 was the year that changed everything for me. As the Tamil people faced one of the darkest chapters in our history, with more than 164,000 lives lost in what many of us recognise as genocide, the global response was devastatingly quiet. For Tamils here in Australia, it was a lonely fight. We marched, we protested, we begged the world to listen.
The Greens turned up. I still remember Lee Rhiannon at our rallies, standing shoulder to shoulder with our community, speaking openly against the killings when it was politically inconvenient to do so. She didn’t come for the cameras or the votes, she came because it was right. That image stayed with me.
As a human rights activist and refugee advocate, I found in the Greens a political home where my values weren’t just tolerated, they were shared. Refugees, asylum seekers, First Nations justice, climate action, the rights of working people, these are not separate causes. They flow from the same principle, that every person deserves dignity, and that politics should serve people rather than power.
I’m proud to belong to a party that speaks the truth without expectation of reward, that pushes back even when the pressure is immense, and that refuses to bend the knee to lobby groups or corporate donors. The Greens prove there is another way to do politics in this country, a way grounded in honesty, courage, and community.
Now, as a councillor in Cumberland and as someone deeply embedded in Western Sydney, I’m looking forward to working alongside the Greens to deliver the breakthrough our communities deserve. Western Sydney has been overlooked for too long. Together, we can change that.