By Violet Li
Australia Day Award and Victorian Refugee Achievement Award recipient Andrew Gai will run for Tooradin Ward in the council election this year.
The Cranbourne East resident came to Australia 18 years ago as a young refugee while his parents remained in his home country.
Starting from scratch with no qualifications, he worked hard and patiently built up his social capital over the years. He has always been grateful to everyone who helped him along the way, and this is why the moment he thought he was ready to give back to the community, he dug in.
The past 14 years have seen Mr Gai caring, helping, and supporting asylum seekers, refugees, and underprivileged families as a social worker.
Just as his career is centred around other people, his campaign touches more on his top priorities for Casey rather than who he is and the long list of past achievements he has acquired.
Working in the family violence sector for the last six years, Mr Gai knows how deep-rooted the issue has been in Casey.
In the latest Victorian crime statistics, Casey ranks top for family violence with 5564 incidents in the year ending March 2024.
To tackle the underlying drivers, Mr Gai strongly feels that the council should show leadership.
“I feel that the council needs to do more in terms of bringing the services together in Casey such as the Orange Door, the police, and community support services, and have a joint approach in terms of how we best support people who have been impacted by family violence, and how we engage with people that are using violence,” he said.
“We need to put out the message there for the younger generation, both girls and boys, as to what a respectful and safe relationship is.
“We also need to make sure we intervene early.”
In his job, Mr Gai has worked with adults who use violence, mainly men and tried to find ways to engage with them, treat them as humans, and get them to the point where they realise the impact of their behaviours on others around them.
“A lot of the drivers of family violence are actually attitudes towards women, and that attitude needs to change. That attitude needs to be respectful,” he said.
Family violence issues are more complicated and challenging in Casey, a local government area that enjoys a large multicultural population.
“To be able to address these issues, we need a diversity of ideas. We need a diversity of ’lived’ experiences. We need a diversity of approaches,” he said.
“If we are to address these things, especially from multicultural communities, we need to engage with the right people.
“The general messaging doesn’t work when it comes to ethnic communities and faith communities, so we need to engage with faith leaders, community leaders, and community elders.
“When there is intervention, the aim is not to split the family. The aim is to ensure safety for the children, and the mom, and also to support the man in the family.”
Mr Gai’s other priorities for Casey include the cost-of-living relief, lowering the rates, fixing mobile and internet network issues in Clyde North and part of Cranbourne East, Cranbourne Line extension to Casey Fields, bringing jobs closer to home, improving access to council facilities, and restoring trust and confidence in Casey Council.
Mr Gai is a Labor member and he will be running independently.
