Page 31 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 9 December 2008
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age to protect. To me, the hardships of life in various refugee camps that we were shunted between during our eight long months in Yugoslavia were not evident. Instead, it was a great adventure, and episodes are still fresh in my mind as being a happy time. This is a great compliment to our parents for their ability to shield us from the deprivation and dangers of the refugee experience of which they bore the full brunt then and for the rest of their lives.
Our family was very fortunate to eventually be granted asylum in Australia, and we arrived in Sydney on 17 September 1957. We settled in Sydney, and I grew up in Leichhardt, with my childhood full of happy memories. My father became a passionate St George Budapest soccer fan and, as with thousands of other immigrants and refugees, soccer played a significant role in our assimilation into our new homeland. After completing my school years at Christian Brothers High School in Lewisham, I started work, which eventually led me to a career in sales and marketing. In 1974 I was posted to Canberra, and it was only then that the full impact of my parents’ journey and sacrifice became clear to me.
My wife, Maureen, and I had jobs to go to. We only had to travel 300 kilometres to start our new life in Canberra. We had a house and savings and, at that time, no children. Contrast this with my parents who had nothing—just the clothes on their backs. They simply walked out of Hungary in very dangerous circumstances with their three young children and set their sights on a destination 14,000 kilometres away—to a country they knew nothing about, except that it was free and far from the terrors of communism.
Mr Speaker, in paying tribute to my parents’ journey, sacrifice and bravery that eventually gave their five children opportunities beyond their wildest imaginings, I would also like to recognise the many immigrants and refugees from the multitude of backgrounds with similar stories of courage and initiative, whose contributions to their homeland have affected quite considerably the social, cultural, scientific, artistic, business and sporting life of our present day Australia, including our own Canberra community. I hope that my own journey will give some encouragement to others to continue to contribute to this society of which their parents dared to dream.
Maureen and I came to Canberra in 1974, and we quickly fell in love with our new city in a big way. It became evident to both of us that Canberra was an ideal place to raise our family. I do believe in strong family values, and have been married to my wife, Maureen, for over 30 years. We were married on FA Cup night, so I can never forget the anniversary date, the year of the famous Arsenal-Liverpool encounter. My wife is a primary school principal, and our daughter, Amy, has followed in Maureen’s footsteps as a primary schoolteacher, while our son, Adam, is an accountant and IT security specialist.
Over the last 25 years in Canberra, I have led a number of major multinational ICT companies, established my own international marketing consultancy and have had extensive involvement in the print and electronic media as well as being involved in our multicultural community. I have pursued my passion for sport through my role as a player, coach, administrator, commentator and, finally, President of Soccer Canberra.
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