Pauline Hanson Backer Lalin De Silva Is a Sri Lankan Migration Agent
Lalin De Silva, a Sri Lanka-born migration adviser and lawyer, is backing One Nation and Pauline Hanson in Victoria's state election campaign.
Lalin De Silva, a Sri Lanka-born migration adviser and lawyer, is backing One Nation and Pauline Hanson in Victoria's state election campaign. The 65-year-old says he is well aware of the irony.
"It's very ironic that I'm a registered migration agent who is supporting Pauline Hanson against mass immigration. Plus, my best friend happens to be a Muslim," De Silva said over a late-afternoon coffee.
He did not stop there. "Third irony: I am a Buddhist."
Pakenham, on Melbourne's eastern fringe
The conversation took place in Pakenham, a lower house seat on Melbourne's eastern edge. One Nation's Victorian leader, Warren Pickering, is hoping to make history there as the party's first Victorian lower house MP.
Main street was nearly empty in the fading light. The Pakenham Marketplace shopping centre was still busy.
A different Victoria from the 1990s
One Nation has a long history in the state, and it has not been a happy one. When the party first gained momentum in the late 1990s, it met protests in Victoria and lost at the ballot box in what is Australia's most progressive state.
With less than two weeks until the election, the party is again pushing for a breakthrough in the state's outer suburbs. Pakenham is the seat where it hopes to get one.
De Silva's own story cuts against the party's anti-immigration message. A migrant adviser by trade, he is helping a party that campaigns against mass immigration, and he says he sees the contradiction himself.
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