Media Release

KAP Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter today called for a national day of mourning and remembrance in 2014 to commemorate the 30-year anniversary of the deaths of 37,000 Sikhs across India.

Speaking in Parliament on behalf of the estimated 100,000 Sikhs in Australia – of whom some 600proudly call the North Queensland electorate of Kennedy home – Mr Katter said thecommemoration would allow Australians to recognise a group of people who have contributed a great deal to our nation.

“I don’t know of any other group to come to Australia from another country who have instantly become such patriotic, hardworking, contributing Australians as the Sikhs,” Mr Katter told the Parliament today.

Mr Katter said that from fighting beside our soldiers at Gallipoli, to supporting our communities during natural disasters, to being very prominent in our banana industry, the Sikhs had a long history of being great Australians.

“During the terrible days of cyclone Larry, Indeerjeet Singh’s family took me in and I was deeplyappreciative at the time,” he said.

“And in our great demonstrations in the sugar and banana industries’ desperate fight for survival,people like Sona Singh (of Innisfail) were very heavily involved in organising those demonstrations,” he said.

“When you see our huge demonstrations, you will always see people in the turbans up the front – and people feel very comfortable that if they are in the battle, they know the battle is a good battle.

“The immense popularity of these people who come to Australia, no sooner are they here then they shout with pride, ‘I am in Australia, I am an Australian’. And there is never any doubt in anyone’s mind that they are.”

Mr Katter is at tomorrow (at 2pm) set to meet with some of the estimated 400 Sikhs travelling

from across Australia to Canberra in a bid to raise awareness of the 37,000 Sikh deaths across India from October 31 to November 4, 1984.