Born and raised Malaysian Tamilian and now proud Australian Santhiya Subramaniam is running for council.
For two years, she has called Mooroopna home and is ready to represent her area by running for the Lower Goulburn Ward.
As a woman under 30, Ms Subramaniam said she wanted to see more young people represented in leadership.
“There are a lot of people lobbying around having young people represented, but they don’t really encourage it as much as they say they would support it theoretically,” she said.
“I would really like to see young people, especially those under 30, stepping up to these bigger, better roles.”
She is proud of her town and is aiming to uplift the voices in Mooroopna.
“I feel like there needs to be representation for Mooroopna,” she said.
“The base is there, the foundations are there, we just need to use them.”
She’s running for council to represent the migrant community of Greater Shepparton, hoping to highlight the unique issues they face.
“I’m also a migrant and I represent coming from a diverse multicultural background,” she said.
“I feel like across Shepparton, we have this big migrant and multicultural, diverse backgrounds and communities, but they are the under-represented when it comes to local government in general.”
In terms of advocacy, Ms Subramaniam said she would focus on including the small towns and creating a stronger community.
“We really have to focus on all these small towns and make a very close-knitted community because now what’s happening is people say Shepparton, but the people on the other side of the river say they feel abandoned,” Ms Subramaniam said.
“We can work towards that and I really want all these communities to be closer and have things celebrated in a way that they all feel respected and involved.”
When she reflected on when she first arrived in town, Ms Subramaniam said she felt welcomed and that was why she fell in love with the local area.
“I felt welcomed, I felt warm and embraced. I’m also raising my small family now,” she said.
“It feels like I’ve always been here.”