Casey council candidate for Waratha ward Jamel Kaur Singh’s placards defaced with racist slurs
A candidate running for council election in Melbourne’s southeast is devastated after her campaign boards were covered in racist graffiti. But she has a message for her attackers.
South East
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A candidate running in the council elections in Melbourne’s southeast says she fears for her safety after her campaign boards were slashed and covered in racist graffiti.
Jamel Kaur Singh, who is running for Casey elections council in the Waratha ward, said she was left devastated by the vile attack.
Ms Singh, who moved to Australia from England when she was four years old, started her election campaign three weeks ago.
But on Tuesday, while she was coaching her local girls’ netball team, she was informed that her campaign board had been graffitied.
Scribbled on the placard were racist comments including like “Australia is for Australians” and “Go back and fix your c--try”.
Ms Singh said she feared for her safety when she saw the racist graffiti.
“After the fear passed, it’s all just a heart-wrenching reality. Like what does it mean to be Australian? I am what Australia looks like,” she said.
“I came here 44 years ago. I was born in England, my parents were born in Malaysia, and my grandparents are from India and Pakistan,” she said.
“The colour of my skin is of ethnicity, but the country I belong to, the country I am from, is Australia.”
Since then, Ms Singh said 10 more of her campaign placards had razors put through them or were ripped off.
“It’s a big blow … they’re also not cheap, and I’m self-funded. I haven’t got any donations or anything from anybody. I’m running this campaign on my own,” she said.
Ms Singh, who is a corporate cultural change consultant, said this was the first time in 44 years she had experienced racism.
“I have never in my life felt that I am not Australian until this week,” she said.
“In the last 24 hours, I can say racism is more now than it was 40 years ago when I came to Australia.
“So for me not to be called Australian, it was a big blow, but also realising that there needs to be real systemic change in our leadership, representation, and where we’re going as a country moving forward.”
Latest data from June 2023 shows those born in India (846,000) made up the second largest migrant group in Australia, after those born in England.
Ms Singh said the person “targeting” her “picked the wrong candidate” because it had only fuelled her passion.
“I’m no pushover. This person has definitely picked the wrong person to intimidate because what they’ve done is, they’ve made me more determined to create more social cohesion,” she said.
Ms Singh said more education and services needed to be implemented to create greater social integration within the community.
“It’s not about creating a club for this community, a different club for that community or cultural group. We need more social integration,” she said.
“And until we do that, we’re never going to get the respect and acceptance across the board.
“We don’t want to create ghetto mentalities. We want to create social cohesion, and that means everybody is together in celebrations.”
Ms Singh said there was “unity within our diversity” and it was important to celebrate it.
“Even though I’m four generations away from India, I teach Bollywood dancing in schools nationally. I speak the language, I sing the songs, and that’s part of my identity,” she said.
“But I also do the bangers and mash, bacon and eggs. I think there needs to be more establishment of what it means to be Australian. Until people integrate and assimilate, we’ll never get that social cohesion.”
A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the incident was being investigated.
“Victoria Police takes any politically or racially motivated crime seriously, including criminal damage in the form of graffiti. These are criminal acts, and they will be fully investigated with the aim of holding perpetrators to account,” the spokeswoman said.
Anyone who witnessed the incident, has CCTV, dashcam footage or any other information that could assist police is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report online here.
