Thank You, Nathan Rees
When the garbage collector from Toongabbie rose up in the ranks to become the Premier of the largest state of Australia, he was expected to maintain status quo. Before becoming Premier, Nathan Rees had built deep linkages with the Indian community in areas around Toongabbie and had been a regular attendee at most Indian functions.
The first community function that Nathan Rees attended as a Premier was the Deepavali function in the NSW Parliament in 2008. This was despite the fact that soon after he was sworn in he faced the biggest political challenge from the Right faction in his party and the reason was Tony Stewart. Despite being embroiled in controversy he made it a point to attend this function. It was the first time in the history of NSW that a Premier had attended Deepavali function which was going on since the last five years. In doing so he raised the profile of Deepavali function to such an extent that these days you have to be lucky to be on the guest list and get inside the Parliament Hall on this day. In the past the Premier would have sent his representative to read out a message. Soon after he also attended the Baisakhi function in the Parliament much to the delight of the community. In 2009 he again attended the Diwali celebration inside NSW Parliament. On these occasions Nathan Rees remembered most community members by their first names.
In almost all meetings where Nathan spoke about multiculturalism, he spoke about the Indian community first and also gave examples of Hindi language schools in his parliamentary area. Indians living in Sydney always occupied his mind space.
At the AIBC Australia India Business Council NSW 2009 Annual address, Nathan Rees gave a powerful speech saying NSW wanted to attract a 3rd of all visiting international students and spoke about his desire for NSW to become the epicentre of Indian students in Australia. During the height of violence against Indian students, Nathan Rees organised face to face meetings with the Indian community members, galvanised CRC and local police into action. It is a credit to his efforts that violence against Indian students in NSW has largely been contained and the situation in NSW is much better than Victoria, where the government machinery is still struggling. He also went out of his way to court the ethnic media.
It was during Nathan’s tenure that NSW opened a formal office in India for establishing trade linkages. He also fancied Bollywood movies and on one occasion danced on a Bollywood song.
Victorian Premier John Brumby caused controversy when he decided to drop the city of Mumbai from his agenda during his visit to India. However, Nathan Rees made it a point to go and stay in Mumbai during his maiden trip to India and sent a strong message to the Indian community which was very much appreciated.
Nathan Rees also announced a grant of 50,000 dollars for organising the UIA Friendship Fair for 2010, and the money is now available with UIA. This was the first time that a grant of this size has been announced publicly for the Indian community. He was personally responsible for bringing Indian musical genius AR Rahman to Sydney to alleviate tensions in Australian/Indian relations as a result of attacks on Indian students in Australia.
Nathan Rees was the best thing ever happened to the Indian community in NSW and his legacy and interactions with the Indian community will be missed. At 42 years, Nathan Rees still has lot of political life left in him and he could be convinced to play a guiding role for the Australian Indian community.
The Indian community needs to press for his role to be an intermediary of the Indian student community and to relay their concerns to the Victorian state government which is trying to grapple with the situation. Nathan Rees brings invaluable skills in this area and can offer solutions to Victorian government to tide over the crisis.
It is time for the Indian community to return the favour back to Nathan Rees. It is time our community organisations have some award or appreciation for local politicians who go out of their way to help the Indian community. Delivering this award on the occasion of Australia Day and Indian Republic Day would be a step in the right direction.
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