Growing up Zaneta Mascarenhas "loved" playing hockey.
Making of a Parliamentarian
Zaneta Mascarenhas Profile
By Marci Pereira
Full Name: Zaneta Felice Antoinetta Mascarenhas
● Date of Birth/Age: 26 July 1980/ 42years
● Place of Birth: Kalgoorlie, Western Australia
● Raised: Kambalda, Western Australia
● Parents: Joseph & Ethel Mascarenhas
(formerly from Mombasa,Kenya)
● Sibling: Cleta Blakiston (Older sister born in
Kenya)
● Spouse: Samuel Hurst (Met at Curtin University)
● Family: Lincoln (4); Felicity (2)
● Education:
⁎ John Paul College, Kalgoorlie, WA
⁎ Curtin University, Perth, WA -
Science & Engineering – Double Degree
# BE (Chem)(Hons) + BSc (AppChem)
⁎ Murdoch University, Perth, WA
‘Graduate Diploma in Community Development
● Student Office:
⁎ President of Curtin University
Student Guild (2002)
⁎ President of National Union of
Students (WA Branch – 2003-2004)
Employment History:
⁎ Process Engineer for lluka
Resources (2005-2007)
⁎ Communications Consultant – World
Bank: Water; Sanitation Program (2007/8)
⁎ Process Engineer for GHD
(2008-2009)
⁎ Senior Consultant for Energetics
(2009-2012)
⁎ Manager for Energetics
(2012-2013)
⁎ WA Team Leader for Energetics
(2013-2019)
⁎ WA Manager for Energetics (2019
-2022)
● Professional Appointments
⁎ Presenter for ‘The Climate
Reality Project’ (2009-2022)
⁎ President of ‘Professionals
Australia’ (WA Branch 2011)
⁎ National Vice-President of
‘Professionals Australia’ (2012-2013)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
● 21 May 2022 ●
Elected Labour Party Member of Australian Federal
Parliament for
‘Swan Division’ (a constituency of Perth).
Zaneta delivered her maiden speech in Parliament in
Canberra on 26 July 2022.
(A full Hansard copy of that insightful speech is
attached at the end of this chapter)
Observations & Comments on Zaneta’s Profile
& Parliamentary Maiden Speech (I)
By Marci Pereira
a) Zaneta Mascarenhas’ Parliamentary Maiden Speech.
A full copy of that Hansard speech is attached at the end of this chapter. It
outlines her family’s life story and the challenges they confronted in choosing
to migrate to and then establishing themselves in Western Australia. Quite an
eye-opener. The speech also spells out her vision and ambition for taking Australia
forward as a richly endowed multicultural nation with future generations very
much in her sight. I found it interesting to note how her engineering and
scientific background is harnessed in advocating Australia moves seriously into
manufacturing as well, rather than just mining and refining its vast stock of
minerals for others to exploit commercially.
Another point her delivery underlines is the urgent
need for greater consciousness of environmental issues and stressing the
resources Australia is already blessed with in steering away from fossil fuels.
It is refreshing to be let into the vision of this ‘Goan Lady Engineer’ who
happens to be a young Mum too. Zaneta’s speech ends with ‘thankyous’ that
include scores of names of party members, union members,
supporters, volunteers, friends, etc. I have erased
those names in this instance, as they would mean little to many of us, not in
Western Australia. Here are a few acronyms, abbreviations, Aussie-speak terms which
are explained below:
• FIFO Mum: ‘Fly-in-Fly-out Mum’. Zaneta, based in
Perth, which is on the west coast, will have to fly right across to east
Australia, to Canberra (3090km, 1920miles) when parliament is in session.
Flight time is approximately 4 hours and there is a time difference of 2 hours
between the two cities. To fulfil her duties as an MP, she will have to allow
considerable time being away from her young family to be looked after by her
husband/parents.
• STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering,
Mathematics.
• WA: Western Australia • Kindy: Kindergarten
• Tradie: A blanket slang term that refers to
“tradesmen”. These are skilled workers that often have their own nicknames too
(like Gazza for Gary or Millsy for someone with the surname Mills!)
• Cubby House: Small outdoor playhouse for children
b) Goan attachment to faith schools. Looking at
Zaneta’s career profile shows she attended John Paul College in Kalgoorlie. For
me, the name provides a hint of it being a Catholic institution. It is a
Catholic co-educational College established in 1984 and was a merger of two
previous colleges: Christian Brothers College for Boys formed in 1906 and
Prendiville College for Girls which opened in 1971. It offers secondary
education for young people between Years 7 and 12 based on Catholic teaching
and service to others.
I find this preference of adhering to our Catholic tradition and upbringing, which hails from our attachment to Goa, is equally exercised in the new host countries we have migrated to, be it the UK, USA, Canada, Australia or wherever. It was the case with my wife and me when it came to choosing schooling for our sons here in the UK, just as our parents sought to send us to the Goan School or the Star of the Sea School in Mombasa, in our schooling days.
See how that observation fits in with the response
issued by Cardinal-elect, Archbishop Felipe Neri Ferrao of Goa, when
interviewed by the newspaper ‘The Goan’ just this week, in advance of his ordination
in Rome scheduled for Saturday 27 August 2022:
(Q) The Goan: As a son of the soil who has risen to one of the highest positions in the Catholic Church, what would be your message to Goans all over the world?
(A) Cardinal-elect: In my several encounters with Bishops around the world, I have always heard them paying glowing tributes to the Goan communities living in their respective dioceses. A common trait in their feedback is their appreciation for the strong sense of belonging and
dedication to the Church displayed by the Goan Catholic diaspora. My appeal to my fellow-Goans all over the world is to continue to remain rooted in the rich legacy of faith which has been handed on to us by our ancestors and which we are called to pass on to future generations.
We saw earlier, our school luminary Dr Caetano Quadros had also migrated to Perth and as per the eulogy delivered by his daughter, Carmen Quadros, he had a successful and fulfilling life harnessed to his faith, as expressed eloquently in the following extract:
“ …..Dad was a man of Faith, with an abiding and unwavering devotion to God. He was challenged many times, but nothing could ever sway him from holding God’s Hand. Perhaps this is what made him so courageous. Courage to tread where no one in our family had gone before, courage to be a leader, courage to hold fast to his convictions, to stand tall in a crisis; a harbour in a tempest. …..”
Zaneta Mascarenhas (Chemical Engineer)!!!
What? A Goan Lady Engineer? Whilst working on the
‘Archiving Memories of Mombasa Goan School Project’ in 2017, in the course of
my research, I came across an outstanding school luminary: Claire Soares, a
Mechanical Engineer in Canada/USA. I was truly overawed then, by her
accomplishments and here is an extract out of that chapter on Claire Soares
expressing my surprise and admiration for these remarkable Goan ladies, which
dovetails well in the context of this chapter on Zaneta too.
“ ……She is the first and only lady engineer from
our school, I think, as per my research this far. In fact, she is only the
second Goan female Engineer, I have come across ~ the other being a Chemical
Engineer in Australia. I will be thrilled if I am proved wrong on this and
would like to hear from anyone who can correct me here.
During my time in Mombasa, one did never associate
engineering or anything technical, with girls.
Far from it. From my recall, higher education
opportunities hardly existed in Mombasa, be it for boys, or girls, at that
time. When I finished in 1958, ‘Teachers Training’ was the only tertiary education
college available in Mombasa then. When it came to occupational opportunities,
for boys, it was mainly Teaching, Customs, Railways & Harbours or
African Marine. For girls:
Teaching, Secretarial or Administration. It
followed, that many of those with ambitions, had to travel abroad mostly, to
avail of a wide range of career choice opportunities. There were scarcely any
careers advisors either, during my time in Mombasa. If someone had said to me
that Claire Soares had qualified in Medicine, that would come as no surprise to
me, for someone as bright, in keeping with my mindset. But if I was told that
she is a formidable Mechanical Engineer in Canada/USA, my reaction would be,
“Never”. Why? Because for me, that was the least expected career path for a
“Goan” lady, in my time. Not only that, you will see from the write-up that
follows, she goes on to become a global authority on ‘Turbine Technology’ with
8 books to her credit, and another in the pipeline. That is just one reason I
have been overawed in this instance.
I am bound to be accused of being a sexist by the
modern generation reading this, for my ‘narrow’ outlook. But amongst us,
ex-students of Mombasa Goan School/Sacred Heart School, let’s be honest, how
many would have expected this revelation? For me, this makes Claire’s
outstanding accomplishments all that much more remarkable. Full marks to
whoever guided her success into that professional capacity and beyond. Could it
be her parents or her Science or Mathematics teacher, perhaps? Professor
Stephen Hawking (know him?), attributes his career path to his Maths Teacher ~
Dikran Tahta ~ at St Alban’s School in the UK. Professor Hawking is known to have
remarked: “Behind every exceptional person, there is an exceptional teacher.” I
wonder who that exceptional teacher was, in Claire’s case? ……………” In Zaneta’s
case, I don’t have to wonder where her career influences came from. She proudly
names all those that have shaped her life, going back to her childhood in
Kambalda, in her parliamentary speech as follows:
“…… Having a dad who is a fitter and turner meant
that I got to get on the tools from a young age. Knowing how to fix a leaky tap
or change a tyre are useful lifelong skills. I also loved science and maths, so
for me it was natural to study science and engineering at uni. Now, I want the
number of women in science, technology engineering and maths to grow, and this
starts in childhood. Give girls Lego to build those building blocks, hand a
girl a spanner, and encourage them to use a telescope to reach for the stars.
……….”
“ …… The calibre of teachers was phenomenal – in particular, Elaine Wilson and principal Anthony Beatty. They fostered curiosity, play, respect and a love of learning. In fact, my primary school teacher, Mrs Wilson was my childhood role model. This smart compassionate woman taught us about our world, the environment, self belief and, most importantly, that one person can make a difference. Educators lay foundations for kids that are critical. ……..” Those two paragraphs inform us as to who Zaneta’s career ‘role models’ were. Her reference to her dad being a “fitter and turner” takes me back to our MIOME days in Mombasa. That is where we attended night school working towards the City & Guilds Certificate in ‘Workshop Engineering’ in the years 1960/3. Fitting and turning were key elements of that course. The term “turner” incidentally, applies to an operator who works a lathe machine. I expect, that Certificate would have stood in good stead for Joseph Mascarenhas’ application to emigrate to Australia.
Zaneta’s statement: “Educators lay foundations for
kids that are critical” focuses my mind to an article I was reading in the
London Times just this week (20 th August 2022) entitled: “An icon of the
scientific community is turning ideas into economic reality”. The icon is from
the UK: Professor Janet Hemingway (aged 64) who set up the ‘Infection
Innovation Consortium (iiCON)’ and is composed of academics, businesses and NHS
partners established to speed up the creation of new products to treat,
diagnose and prevent infectious diseases. She is described in the paper as: “A
daughter of shopkeepers who grew up in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.
Hemingway was fascinated by nature and animals from
an early age looking after cats, dogs,frogs, mice and two retired mining horses
which were kept in a field behind her house. Her grandfather was a miner. She
was told by her grammar school headmistress that girls don’t do science.
However, the admonishment only strengthened her resolve that ‘this girl
certainly was going to do science’ and left her with ‘zero respect for anybody
in education who was prepared to say that to a 13-year-old”. Guess what? She
was the youngest woman to become a professor in Britain at the age of 27!!!
Another point that caught my attention in Zaneta’s
speech was: “Give girls LEGO to build those building blocks ……”. As a parent
and grandparent, I have been a big admirer and advocate of ‘LEGO’ for kids (and
now even adults. Yes, adults too.) with the sophisticated and complex creations
they continue to bring out year-after-year. For me, as for Zaneta, they are
highly creative and imaginative building blocks, be it for boys or girls that
co-ordinate minds and hands. As a result of this admission, I can visualise
LEGO sales shooting up sharply this Christmas!!!
Route into Politics – University Student
Appointments
Looking at Zaneta’s educational profile I could
detect her appetite for politics early in her university days. She was the
President of Curtin University Student Guild in 2002 followed by being the
President of the National Union of Students (WA Branch) in 2003/4. That would
add a significant feather in her cap. A quick check shows that Curtin
University has in the region of 50,000 students whereas the 6 universities of
Western Australia, combined, have approximately 155,000 students.
Here in the UK, holding office in such student
capacities is viewed as ‘breeding ground’ for politicians, which I expect must
be so for Australia too. Many aspire to roles in parliament/government in later
years. Two notable examples come to mind during my student days. In 1966, the
President of the National Union of Students (NUS) was Jack Straw, who studied
Law at university, entered Parliament in 1979 as the MP for Blackburn and went
on to serve in high office in Labour Governments in the period 1997-2010.
In her speech, Zaneta states the following: “…. I
loved Curtin, like you do in the country you get involved in the community, and
for me that was through the Curtin Student Guild and the National Union of
Students. …. the union movement taught me that collectively, we can achieve so
much more together. My National Labor Students comrades taught me about
inclusion, fairness, equality and what leadership looks like. ………This time
taught me that unions and bosses don’t have to always fight. Yes, the
Vice-Chancellor and I disagreed on some things, but when we worked together we achieved
better outcomes. In fact, in a sign of strength of this relationship, Patrick
Gorman’s Curtin Student Guild ended up naming a bar after Vice-Chancellor Lance
Twomey. ……..”
Furthermore, her stints as “Vice-President and
President of ‘Professionals Australia’ would have boosted her credentials for
entry into politics/parliament.
‘Swan
Division’ Parliamentary Seat
This is the constituency that Zaneta now represents
in the Australian Federal Parliament. I was curious to want to know a little
about her electorate. As this division forms a part of metropolitan Perth, I
found it helpful to look at the overall city of Perth first and then examine ‘Swan
Division’ in that context. Perth is described as one of the fastest-growing
cities in Western Australia. It is the wealth boom of WA that has been driving
the population growth, quite apart from its Mediterranean-like climate. Its
population this year is likely to surpass 2.1million. The Perth Metropolitan
Area covers 6,148sq. km (2,478sq. miles).
Perth’s population is notable for the high
proportion of British and Irish-born residents. At the 2021 Census, 169,938
England-born Perth residents were counted, ahead of even Sydney
(151,614), despite the latter having well over twice the population.
Interestingly, as high as 25% of the population are Catholics. There is a
sizeable South African and Zimbabwean ‘white’ community too, many of whom
arrived in the 1980s/1990s. Since the end of the White Australia
policy in 1973, Asia has become an increasingly important source
of migrants, with communities from Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines,
Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Mainland China and India, – all now
well-established.
By contrast the City of Swan has a population approaching 155,000. [As per the site ‘Poll-Bludger’: “Swan is bounded to the north by the Swan River (from which the constituency gets its name) and to the west and south by the Canning River, extending from riverside South Perth and Como in the west through Belmont and Cannington to High Wycombe and Forrestfield in the east, with much of the centre dominated by Perth Airport and the Kewdale and Welshpool light industrial areas. A distinction is evident between an affluent and Liberal-voting west and a lower-income, Labor-voting east, reflected in the corresponding state seats of South Perth and Victoria Park usually being safe for Liberal and Labor respectively.”]
As per the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’, reporting
before the elections: “ … Labor’s candidate, Goldfields-raised chemical
engineer Zaneta Mascarenhas, comes straight from the party’s socially
progressive left-wing faction. …… Swan is Western Australia’s most diverse
seat. …….. Unlike higher density Australian cities, WA electorates sprawl
across Perth to meet the electoral commission’s population targets. Swan,
technically an inner-city electorate, covers an array of communities for this
reason. …..
Census data from 2016 shows in the bustling metro
centre of Cannington to the south of the electorate there are large Chinese,
Indian and Filipino communities and 50 per cent of the entire electorate had parents
born overseas….. The closer to the river a constituent lives, the wealthier
they are, with South Perth families earning an average of A$1883 per week
compared to Queens Park in the electorate’s south, where they earn A$400 less a
week. ….. This diversity makes Swan a tough nut to crack. …….
Before standing for politics Mascarenhas worked for
a climate change consultancy firm Energetics, which helped ASX 200 companies
understand their greenhouse gas footprint. She was a star pick by the party’s
left faction for Swan and opened Labor’s campaign at its national launch in
Perth on May 1.
Mascarenhas says parliament desperately lacks
people with science, technology, engineering and mathematics backgrounds at a
time when they are needed the most. “I think our federal parliament needs more
diversity and when I say diversity, I do mean genders, races, but also skills,”
she says. “I don’t think that we have enough people with science and
engineering skill sets in our federal parliament and we’re at a time where
science has never been as important as it is today, whether that relates to health
advice with COVID, or whether that relates to climate change action.”
Mascarenhas says cost of living is overwhelmingly the biggest issue for Swan
constituents. “We’ve not seen wages keep up with the cost of living and the
truth is we’ve seen that over the full three terms of this government,” she
says.
My mum Ethel, was a lollipop lady and kindergarten
cleaner. …. Nearly everyone’s parents were employed at the mine. It was a
highly skilled and multicultural workforce.
We had magnificent gum trees that traversed our
front yards. For school camp fundraisers we helped rehabilitate mines and
planted trees. Mr Woolard, the environment manager, taught us that once you dug
up the minerals you put the topsoil back and you healed the land again.
Steelcap boots on a mine site: that’s how I started
my career. … My boss, Tim McDougall, had faith in me and helped build my
foundational skills. I relished the opportunity to work with operators and tradies
– though times have changed. My dad is from a generation of tradies who have
fewer than 10 fingers; my dad has 9½. Growing up, I remember reports of
rockfalls underground. Kids would wonder, ‘Did my dad get hurt or worse, did he
die?’
“… It is critical that we get this transition right and that regional Australia has pathways to secure, well-paid jobs. You see, I’ve been the daughter of a fitter and turner who was made redundant after 19 years of loyal service. This was because the nickel price tanked. At 56, my dad was shattered physically and mentally. My dad became the breadwinner of his family at 16 and helped bring up his six brothers and sisters. My dad is a strong man, tough as nails, but losing his job broke my dad. It was worse than losing a finger. This was his identity. I hadn’t seen my dad cry until then. Dad would say, ‘I am sorry I failed you.’ Dad, you didn’t fail me; the system failed us.
Observations, Comments (II)
The above statements say so much about Zaneta’s life influences. She grew up in the small multicultural mining town of Kambalda where nearly every breadwinner was a miner. These ‘Tradies’ as she refers to them, are renowned to have their own Australian lingo. It’s definitely English but mystifies anyone not in the know – even other English speakers. Being a tradie adds an extra layer to the workman’s language since they have their own words that can confuse even native Australians. Zaneta uses a few such terms in her delivery to parliament leaving no doubt that she hails from the Goldfields.
Alongside the influence of her own dad, this is where her ambition to become an Engineer will have been incubated. As per the ‘OHS Compliance Solutions.au’ website: “…… the number of ‘Women Tradies’ has been increasing with the government offering more encouragement through the offer of apprenticeships and learning schemes. However, they still constitute just 2% of the workforce and are therefore still far and few between. This is likely due to cultural perceptions. Many people still believe construction or plumbing, or mechanical work is too dangerous or difficult for women to handle. Others believe that women should be in more feminine roles since tradie work is largely masculine. …… It’s clear that anywoman entering the industry needs to have a thick skin.”
This is where I take my hat off to Zaneta
Mascarenhas and our schoolmate, Claire Soares. And I thought it was just our
Mombasa Goan community that harboured such “cultural perceptions” back then.
We get an insight via Zaneta into the occupational hazards and dangers of working for mining companies. “I relished the opportunity to work with operators and tradies – though times have changed. My dad is from a generation of tradies who have fewer than 10 fingers; my dad has 9½.” The industrial ‘Health, Safety and Security Practices & Regulations’ are far more stringent and robust now than when her dad, Joseph Mascarenhas first arrived in 1975. Anyone seeing footages of mining operations will have noticed the gigantic machinery and vehicles working on these sites. With exposed rotating machinery there is always danger to life and limb as there is with accidents resulting from human error.
I have something in common with Joseph Mascarenhas.
9½ fingers. Not mining related but nevertheless an industrial accident when
working for ‘Pereira’s Coconut Oil’ in Mombasa. Such hazards are ever so present
when operating machinery. Although I have not worked in mining as an employee,
I did however, go down the Longannet Colliery (a deep underground coal mine) in
Scotland, complete with miners high vis overalls, steel-toe boots, goggles and
helmet with light, during my work stint with Simon Engineering (Materials
Handling Division) when we worked on an innovative belt-cleaner (Simpulse) project
around 1977. Mines use ‘miles’ of conveyor belts for transportation of ore.
That is when I saw for myself, first-hand, the dangers of working on mining
sites.
“Growing up, I remember reports of rockfalls
underground. Kids would wonder, ‘Did my dad get hurt or worse, did he die?”
Reading that line by Zaneta, rekindled horrible memories of that Aberfan Colliery
disaster in Wales, in 1966 when studying at university here in the UK.
The disaster was the catastrophic collapse of a colliery spoil
tip on 21 October 1966. The tip had been created on a mountain slope above
the village of Aberfan, near Merthyr Tydfil, and overlaid a natural
spring. A period of heavy rain led to a build-up of water within the tip which
caused it to suddenly slide downhill as a slurry, killing 116 children and
28 adults as it engulfed Pantglas Junior School and a row of houses. I remember
the nation was in mourning for a couple of years after that tragedy. Rightly
so.
Most of the “Tradies” referred to would, without
doubt, be members of Trade Unions. This is where the affiliation of the
Mascarenhas family to the ‘Australian Labor Party’ would have all begun. In
fact, in the ‘thank yous’ in her speech, Zaneta thanks the union movement and
specifically names 6 unions that supported her in the elections.
d) Zaneta – a lass in a man’s world – gives credit
for her engineering career success to her boss: Tim McDougal. Her first job
after graduation is as a Process Engineer with ‘Iluka Resources’. This company is
a huge Australian operation that specialises in the mining and processing of
rare earth minerals such as Zircon and Titanium amongst others. Seems like a
progressive industrial operator judging by its’ mission statement on
‘sustainability’: “Sustainability at Iluka means integrating economic,
environmental and social considerations into business practice and ensuring
safe and responsible conduct underpins everything the company does”. The reason
for underlining this point is it appears to me that this is where Zaneta
acquires her deep interest in becoming an advocate for ‘sustainability’ issues
in her later engineering and political career. So, is the subject of addressing
environmental matters relating to climate change, global warming, carbon
emissions, energy generation from natural resources, etc. Her 10 years with
‘Energetics’ were as a consultant on matters relating to carbon emissions and
energy efficiency.
That revelation by Zaneta about her dad, Joseph Mascarenhas, losing his job after ‘slogging’ for 19 long years, made painful reading for me. He had become a victim of the collapse of the price of nickel on the world market. Brought back memories of my geography lessons on how economic viability of mines is tied to demand and price. How fortunes can change. Nickel is in huge demand right now. Almost all of us who migrated out of Kenya, went with a determination armed with a work ethic of making a success in whichever host country we landed in, in whatever work capacity. And so, we did, by and large. Fully appreciate the hurt Joseph would have gone through then.
The role of family and teachers in shaping our adult lives comes out so vividly in this Mascarenhas family story. She gives due credit to the teaching staff at her school with the statement: “The calibre of teachers was phenomenal – in particular, Elaine Wilson and Principal Anthony Beatty. …… Educators lay foundations for kids that are critical. …….” “For school camp fundraisers we helped rehabilitate mines and planted trees. Mr Woolard, the environment manager, taught us that once you dug up the minerals you put the topsoil back and you healed the land again. ……..” One can see how these formative years have shaped Zaneta’s thinking and politics in relation to opportunities for all and the deep concern for the environment.
Apart from the calibre of teachers being phenomenal, I guess that the kids from that small mining town of Kambalda, had an appetite and desire for learning and thereby a genuine mutual respect between teacher and pupil existed, as opposed to this news item I just picked up in the London Times dated 27 th August 2022. The headline reads: “Rude pupils driving out teachers, says strict head”. This is a huge problem in inner-city schools in the main, here in the UK, which I can attest to first-hand, knowing 3 gifted teachers in our own network of friends who abandoned teaching because of unruly behaviour.
The impact early upbringing can have in our later
lives is further illustrated by Zaneta’s sister, Cleta, when she was
interviewed by an Indian newspaper. This is what she had to say: “My parents
instilled in both of us the belief that we could do anything we wanted. They
supported us as we pursued our studies and made many sacrifices including
migrating away from their friends and family in the hope that we would have a
good future in Australia. ….My Dad has a good work ethic which he has passed on
to both of us. Zaneta will put 110% into her work. Mum helped us with our
fundamentals for school. I remember my mum brushing my hair and quizzing me on
my timetables and testing me on my spelling when I was in primary school, which
I am sure she did with Zaneta. They always pushed us to do our best in school.
….My family and I were immigrants to Australia in 1975, so we don’t have a long
illustrious history in politics. Zaneta may have received help through the
relationships she has developed in her Uni days and her career, but all the
credit goes to her and the hard work and effort she has put in her campaigning.
…. She rose on the political ladder on her own and deserves sole credit for her
hard work. … We are incredibly proud of her and her achievement, and look
forward to the good work she will do in improving Australia and overcoming the
challenges that may come up in the future.” That succinctly summarises the
Mascarenhas family: their rehabilitation, adaptation and contribution to their
‘new-found’ host country.
Australia. Thank You
A spotlight on Zaneta’s closing remark: “To my mum
and dad: you sacrificed everything to come to Australia to give me and my
sister Cleta a better life. Thank you for your belief in Australia. ….” Just
reflecting on those heartfelt words brought home to me this thought. Zaneta is
expressing the exact sentiment that mirrors in every one of us who migrated to
faraway lands, be it the UK, Canada, USA, Australia or wherever. I have lost
count the number of times I have heard that sentiment expressed by ex-students
each year, of how thankful they are to their host countries especially when it
comes round to Thanksgiving Days in Canada and the USA. The general consensus
is how happy and thankful they are in beginning a new life in those countries. Based
on my interest in Australia, ever since those school geography lessons and the
mention of the ‘White Australia policy’ I was curious to know how the very
first ex-students that did migrate to Australia fare. My research, first into
Dr Caetano Quadros and now Joseph Mascarenhas gives me the impression that they
were the ‘frontiersmen’ amongst our ex-students that did venture into
Australia.
Like Caetano Quadros and Joseph Mascarenhas, I am
sure, every one of us will have a unique story to relate of the challenges and
difficulties we faced in rehabilitating in these western countries. I for one,
am immensely thankful for my life in the UK. True there were trials and hardships
along the way but as that English poet ‘George Gordon Noel Byron wrote:
“England with all thy faults I love thee still”. Our children and grandchildren
have been well educated in the countries we ventured out to and in many cases,
occupying enviable professional positions in all walks of life. Just as in
Caetano’s and Joseph’s experiences we all have so much to be thankful for to
our host countries. Judging by the UK experience, where we have seen at least
five MPs,
of Goan extraction already, I am sure Zaneta is
just the first in Australia and in time in Canada and the USA perhaps.
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