Page 33 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 7 December 2004
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MR SESELJA (Molonglo): Mr Speaker, I seek leave of the Assembly to make my inaugural speech.
Leave granted.
MR SESELJA: Thank you, Mr Speaker. It was Christmas Day 1970 when Katica Lehpamer arrived alone in Australia, not knowing what the future held. She had left her family, her friends—she had left everything she knew and held dear—for a new life in Australia. Five months later she married Ljudevit Seselja, who had arrived in Canberra three years earlier, and my family had begun. Like so many who arrived in Australia in the post-war period, the Seseljas came to avoid religious and political persecution and in search of a better life. Australia provided an answer to both of these desires.
Though my parents had to struggle at times, they were aware that through hard work and persistence they could build a great future for themselves and their children in their new home. In that way the Seselja family are like millions of others who have come to Australia—people from virtually every nation have come here, many settling in Canberra. These migrants have made a huge contribution to the Australia and the Canberra we know today.
My family, too, has made a significant contribution to Canberra over many years, since my uncle Sime first arrived in 1958, having fled Yugoslavia under the cover of darkness. My uncle Faust and aunty Micica were very active in the Croatian community in Canberra, teaching Croatian language classes and hosting the Croatian hour on community radio station 2XX.
My father, as a distinguished local photographer, has spent much of his career capturing on film the various physical and societal aspects of Canberra. Countless numbers of homes have been built in Canberra by Seseljas.
I am proud of the contribution my family has made to Canberra and I am a proud product of the migrant experience. I stand here today as the first Australian of Croatian heritage to be elected to the ACT Legislative Assembly. I see this as a great honour. The Croatian people have contributed to our city in many ways, not least of which is building a significant proportion of it.
I am very grateful that my parents chose to come to Australia and that I was able to grow up in Canberra. My parents were thankful for their new found freedoms. They came to Australia to escape a communist regime under which they were prevented from exercising freedom of speech and freedom of worship. My uncle Stipan, a priest, was imprisoned by the Yugoslav communist regime for five years for daring to question the authorities when they were persecuting the church and impinging upon people’s fundamental freedoms.
With such a family heritage, I am particularly grateful for the democratic rights that Australia provides, especially the fundamentals of freedom of speech, association and worship. I am grateful that I live in a nation where I am able to be a member of the political party of my choosing, to join or not join a union, to worship as I see fit and, with limited exceptions, to say what I like.
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