Hafiz Jan is the first refugee to become an advisor in federal politics in Australia.

The 30-year-old from Afghanistan is Chief of Staff to Cassandra Fernando, MP, the member for the electorate of Holt, in Melbourne’s south-east.

Amazingly, Hafiz arrived in Melbourne in late 2013 with no English and little knowledge of Australian society or culture.

Hafiz and his mother and seven siblings followed his father, who was forced to flee Afghanistan in 2008.

Over the past decade he has worked and studied to accumulate the skills and knowledge needed to work in the fast-paced world of politics and policy.

“I started working with Cassandra on her election campaign as a volunteer in May, 2022, and I began working full-time as an advisor the following June,” Hafiz said.

“I’m now her Chief of Staff and my day-to-day role is to run the office and make sure everything goes smoothly. I make sure Cassandra is briefed on her meetings, I help with research on events or legislation or community issues.

“As a refugee, I’m able to provide insights into the large migrant and refugee communities in the electorate, and especially my own Afghan community.

“I enjoy the role and, like Cassandra, I’m passionate about supporting our local community and helping people with their issues.

“Cassandra is also passionate about our refugee programs and about education. As a refugee who arrived in Australia with almost no English, I have insights into those areas also. I’ve been through both systems.”

Hafiz began his educational journey in Australia with the migrant and refugee settlement agency AMES Australia

“AMES was my first experience of education in Australia, and it was where my journey to where I am now began,” he said.

“My teacher at AMES was Kerrie Moore and she was amazing. I will always be grateful to her. I also had AMES volunteers help to navigate my new life in Australia. They taught me basic but essential things like how the public transport system works.”

It was through an AMES excursion to RMIT that Hafiz was first connected with higher education.

“At the time, I wanted to join the police force, and I asked staff at RMIT, how I could do that. They suggested that I improve my English and study criminal justice,” he said.

“So, I studied English at RMIT and then I went on to do a Certificate 4 and a diploma in Criminal Justice.”

But along the way, Hafiz’s vision for his future changed.

“At the time, I got involved in the RMIT Student Union and it sparked my interest in the broader union movement,” Hafiz said.

“It is something I have become passionate about, and I ended up working with Cassandra at the Shop Distributive and Allied Employee Association (SDA)union.

“I studied closely the union movement and all of the work it has done over many years to help people achieve better standards of pay and conditions.”

“At the moment, I’m enjoying the work I do and I’m learning a lot. And I’m trying to give back to the community that has given my family and I a home.”

Hafiz is a volunteer with the local CFA station in Narre Warren South. In the past, he has volunteered for the Red Cross and at AMES.

He is also on the executive of state and federal Labor Party bodies, including the Victorian Multicultural Labor Network, which aims to bring more diversity into the party.

Hafiz says his childhood in rural Afghanistan was tough, growing up in the village of Jaghori as one of the ethnic minority Hazara people.

“We lived in an extended household with my uncles and their families. There were 24 of us in a four-bedroom house.

“Sometimes I had to walk three hours to get to school. And, as a Hazara, I suffered discrimination.

“When I finished Year 12, I wanted to go to the military academy. I studied hard, I had good school results and I passed the entry test.

“But I didn’t get in because I was a Hazara. I remember my dad was really upset.”

Hafiz’s unlikely journey to Australia began was set train when he was a teenager.

“My father sponsored us, and we all arrived in late 2013. Initially, life was difficult. I had virtually no English but I was too old to go to school,” Hafiz said.

“I struggled to integrate into the local community and I found thigs complicated. Even navigating myself around the streets of Dandenong was scary – I thought I would get lost.

“That’s when the help I received from the people at AMES was important. It gave me direction and put me on a pathway.

“My family is all happy and doing well in Australia. My dad is working full time, three of my siblings are at university with one of them studying to be a dentist.

“We’ve all fitted well into our communities and into Australian society,” Hafiz said.