The holiday is over, and I’m sitting on a plane on my way home to Melbourne*. With 22 hours of flying time ahead of me, what better time to start investigating the smorgasbord of Independents that the Victorian Senate Ballot Paper has to offer? I apologise in advance for any excess silliness in these pages – though, in all honesty, I’m pretty silly even when I’m not increasingly sleep deprived and experiencing turbulence. But with only a few days left until Sunday, I cannot afford to let sleep deprivation get in my way!
Onward, to the first candidate of this on-board political experience, Karthik Arasu.
Mr Arasu wants you to know that he is the first Indian-born independent senate candidate from Victoria, which is oddly specific now I write it out like that. I wonder how many Indian-born politicians we have at present? I suspect not a lot – none come to mind off-hand. The other thing you need to know about Mr Arasu is that he is Working Today for a Better Tomorrow. Good man.
I found this rather nice press release about him in News18 India, very much of the ‘local boy makes good’ variety, and with some interesting discussions of Australia’s electoral process (I found it interesting that they went out of their way to note that Australians do not tend to vote along ehtnic lines – I’m guessing that in India, perhaps people do?), in which we learn that Mr Arasu was born and brought up in Chennai, studied engineering there, then emigrated to Australia where he did a Masters, before becoming a business consultant and working with small self-help groups in Victoria.
I think we can safely assume that Mr Arasu is going to be fine on Immigration.
Mr Arasu’s policies are in fact Promises, and they are rather charming, and definitely full of kindness to both people and the environment. Continue reading
