After a decade in Australia, Irfan Syed is juggling full-time work, community cricket and caring for two children with special needs – all while navigating rising costs and clinging to hope for a better future.
Ten years after landing a job in IT, the 49-year-old wakes early each weekday to head to work, where he’s contracted with Australia Post. Weekends are packed too — with cricket matches, umpiring duties and family time.
Syed migrated to Australia from India in 2013 and now calls Casey City in Melbourne’s south-east home. While his first few years were a “struggle”, he says he now feels “part of Aussie culture”. He identifies as an optimistic person, committed to his community and firmly backing Labor in the coming election.
I have a 9-to-5 job five days a week and on the weekends I play club cricket and do cricket umpiring in the summer for around six months.
When I started playing for a Berwick club, gelling with Aussies was a little bit difficult. Then eventually I got to know how they talk and how they expect others to behave. I have been umpiring on Saturdays and playing myself on Sundays. So it has been a really good experience interacting with multicultural people on the cricket grounds.
Apart from cricket, I have my brother living near me in Keysborough, so I just go and see him on the weekends and have meals together or attend family gatherings and parties with friends. And then, on Mondays, the cycle starts all over again with the job.
I have a full-time job, earning around $6,000 a month. Apart from that, I’m renting out a couple of rooms in our house. But still, since I have a mortgage, and the cost of living is so tough, we are struggling big time.
My biggest stress is supporting my special-needs kids as much as I can, that’s a big challenge for us. Thankfully, we have NDIS and government support. Without that, it’s really an impossible task for anybody, and we are grateful that the NDIS is supporting us in supporting our kids.
Australia is one of the few countries with such a good support system for children with special needs. It is crucial for middle-class and struggling families who can’t afford to have any kind of support for children with special needs.
I go through some news websites like the ABC and the Age and others. When I come home, I go through some current affairs on TV news channels.
No, it has been the same. But during Covid, the dependency on the news was more because I was working from home. It used to help divert my attention to see what’s going on in the world in relation to Covid and other stuff. But now there is less dependency on news.
Whatever government comes to power after the election, it should try its best in order to manage the cost-of-living crisis and make it easier for all Australian citizens. For example, in the past it was manageable when you would go to a supermarket or fill your car tank, but now it has become really expensive and that pinch has been felt by many in Australia.
Well, wherever you are in life, no matter what happens, we have to be positive and make a positive contribution. It will help us positively enter the society. So I am always an optimistic person. I strongly believe in optimism.
My support is always for Labor. Based on their policies, my preference would be to vote for Labor – that has always had a balanced policy, particularly towards the middle-class people and overall. For example, their immigration, health and economic policies are much better.
Generally speaking, there are always shortcomings. For instance, in the last elections, they tried to manage the immigration matter differently in order to strengthen our university system and in order to get some economic boost, but it has not worked as they were expecting in light of the housing issues etc, but the intention was good. But I think lessons learned. Maybe in the future they are going to streamline that aspect and overall economic outlook. So I am going to vote Labor again.