As millions of residents around the country get ready for the new year and begin preparing their Christmas wish list, one Sunbury family wants something more than anything else, an opportunity to stay in Australia.
Sukhdeep Kaur and Jaswinder Singh along with their children have experienced a year full of uncertainty and worry, after being told on May 29 they had 35 days to leave the country.
A powerful petitioning gained tens of thousands of signatures from Australians urging Multicultural Affairs Minister Andrew Giles to allow the family to remain in the country.
Since this time they have received multiple visa extensions, but daughter Ravneet Garcha said these constant visa extensions puts them in the same situation they were in six months ago.
“It is too stressful to be stuck in the same situation from the last six months without any updates,” she said.
“It feels nice to be here as we wouldn’t have thought we [would be], however at this stage we don’t have a reason for celebration as the uncertainty still lingers around our lives.
“We would like to live without uncertainty and celebrate Christmas and new year’s happily without any worries but it is too soon for that.”
Ms Garcha said while the family didn’t think they would still be here together at this time of the year, they would like to live without this layer of uncertainty.
“We are all praying and hoping that we get some good news next year as constant visa extensions are stressful and draining.
“We would like to finally be able to call Australia home together and live a life where we don’t have to constantly worry about the past eight years and all the hard work going into waste.”
“The only support we’ve had in this period is each other and our supporters on the petition which have now reached 19,700 which gets us going and gives us some hope.”
Hawke MP Sam Rae said he always advocates for the people of Hawke, including by raising issues directly with Mr Giles.
“We’re all better off for our growing multicultural communities here in Hawke,” he said. “I don’t comment on the specifics of individual cases due to privacy considerations.”
Mr Giles was contacted for comment.
