00:00:07:04 - 00:00:36:13 Sana Hi, my name is Sonia Hosseini. I came to Australia with my family in 1986. We are Baha i's from the Baha’i community. We came as refugees and we have loved being part of the Australian community and the wider community, all that time. I work as a mortgage broker, I own some Aussie Homeloan stores and have been there for 18 years now. 00:00:36:22 - 00:01:03:06 Sana And I noticed that there was some issues in housing and affordability and around property. So I thought the best place to approach this was with the governments. And, through asking some friends, they mentioned that this was a sector that is dealt with mostly by federal government. 00:01:03:18 - 00:01:19:22 Sana And so I approached the Federal Member. I went on to the website and I found out who our federal member was, which was quite simple. Once you typed in your postcode or it gave you a suburb, it told you exactly who your member was. 00:01:20:01 - 00:01:33:21 Sana And there was a website, it introduced her. So it made it a little bit more comfortable because I knew who I was going to reach out to, and they all seem to have a really simple contact form. So I in the contact form, I didn't mention too much. 00:01:33:21 - 00:01:52:18 Sana I just said that I would like to have an appointment. Very soon a member of the Member of Parliament's office contacted me and arranged the time for an appointment that was convenient to me and them and I went and visited. 00:01:54:09 - 00:02:15:09 Sana I was actually quite surprised they they spent around an hour listening to the different, the analysis and the statistics that I was sharing with them and what I thought. And, they were taking notes and they were engaged and it actually felt really good to actually reach out. 00:02:15:20 - 00:02:33:12 Sana Normally I wouldn't reach out, but this was, I thought, important. I could see that this was going to affect property prices going up too quickly in the future. And I wanted to see if there was things that we could do to make it better for people and affordability. 00:02:34:02 - 00:02:55:18 Sana So as part of my work, I deal alot with people purchasing properties and homes and and building, and I notice that there is a statistic around building approvals. So, this in a way is a predictive number that predicts how many properties will be hitting the market in a particular period of time. 00:02:55:19 - 00:03:10:13 Sana So if you look at the ones for units, it normally is a good prediction of what's going to be on the market in, say, two years, 18 months to two years time. For the building approvals for residential properties or homes is normally a good predictor of something between six months to twelve months. 00:03:10:13 - 00:03:23:15 Sana What's going to be on the market. I just noticed that there was a massive dip in the number of people building and that would affect the number of people or the the prices of properties would be going up because it would be limited amount of stock. 00:03:23:16 - 00:03:37:08 Sana And and that and a few other things combined, I could see that was going to affect property prices, and I wanted the government to be aware of the combinations of what they were doing because you don't want unintended consequences. 00:03:37:21 - 00:03:58:01 Sana Visiting the member of Parliament, I didn't really have any expectations because it wasn't something I'd done before. It was something new, but I was passionate about the issue and I wanted around affordability and also on property and homes. 00:03:58:18 - 00:04:17:06 Sana I've been doing it a long time and I know that when a family has a home, it's and that stability that it's better outcomes for families and children and stuff. So I'm quite passionate about it. I was actually a little bit surprised by the outcome of the interaction. 00:04:17:07 - 00:04:38:10 Sana I got a follow up very soon afterwards. Thanking me for visiting. The staff member that had met with me, summarised a little bit of the discussion that we've had and said, Are these the issues exactly that you've raised, which is really lovely because you could see that they were listening, which felt 00:04:38:10 - 00:05:00:22 Sana really good. And then they then that was passed on to the Member of Parliament, who personally wrote in an email afterwards, mentioning that she had taken those suggestions and the statistics that I had provided to the Treasurer. So that was actually quite lovely because that wasn't something that I was expecting. 00:05:01:23 - 00:05:18:10 Sana Every single one of us has a particular background, a particular life experience that has led them to be where they are and we and that's the beauty of the world. And that's what makes the world so beautiful and wonderful. 00:05:19:01 - 00:05:42:12 Sana We may notice something in our community that no one else has noticed that may be of benefit to others. And approaching a member of Parliament is, I think, part of our responsibility as a member of a community, the Australian community to reach out and say, this is what I've seen and this is what I have noticed. 00:05:42:20 - 00:06:06:19 Sana And I think that the process is approachable and simple enough that either yourself or maybe even take you along with friends if you're feeling that you need that support. I would recommend it, and I would suggest that it's much easier than than what we may think, but what I thought initially. 00:07:41:17 - 00:08:13:02 Sana