Power, Politics and Place: Indian Australians at the Centre of Melbourne's Civic Story
Melbourne's Indian community is no longer a peripheral player in Australian public life — it is increasingly central to debates about political influence, migration and national identity, and these stories show both the complexity and the consequence of that shift.
🏛️ Temple Land Sale Puts Premier's Indian Community Ally in the Spotlight
A controversy surrounding the sale of land connected to a Sikh temple in Melbourne has drawn scrutiny to a businessman with close ties to then-Premier Daniel Andrews. The businessman, a Mulgrave supermarket owner and liquor retailer, had formed a lobby group in 2018 that subsequently secured a state government grant worth one million dollars to refurbish the Blackburn Gurdwara. Questions were raised because he had previously been a committee member at the temple before departing amid a dispute over a land purchase involving a company partly owned by his wife. Senior Labor figures and members of the Indian community questioned how a self-selecting, informal lobby group came to wield such influence over government funding decisions. [6]
🇦🇺 How Indian Migration Is Reshaping Australia — and Melbourne in Particular
A major feature published in Good Weekend explored the sweeping demographic and cultural transformation being driven by Indian migration to Australia, with Melbourne at the heart of the story. At the time of publication, people of Indian ancestry in Australia numbered more than 780,000, representing an increase of nearly 165,000 since 2016, placing Indians second only to the British among migrant groups. Experts quoted in the piece urged Australians to understand Indian-Australians through a lens far broader than familiar cultural shorthand, recognising the community's educational attainment, ambition and civic engagement. The article portrayed a community that is not merely settling in Australia but actively shaping its future. [5]
Sources: [6] The Age · [5] SMH.com.au