While it will only take a few minutes for Hassan Naji to get to a polling booth on Saturday, he says it will be the culmination of a decades-long journey.
“This is very important to me. In the 49 years of my life, it is the first time I will vote in a national election,” says Naji, an Afghan refugee who lives in Sydney’s western suburbs.
“I am very excited to vote to play a role in determining my future and the future of my children.”
The path from Afghanistan to a Sydney voting booth has been an arduous one. But he says he first tried to get to Australia by boat in 2001, but it was towed back to Indonesia by Australian authorities….