Who is Peter Polites? Well, firstly that’s not his real name. He was born Panayioti but the nurse decided to change his name to help him fit in. It didn’t help. Peter graduated from Usyd with a Bachelor of Activism, becoming active in Anti-Racist issues through the Refugee Action Collective and getting arrested at various protests. After working for Sen George Campbell and sharing elevators with John Howard, Peter completed further studies in Community Development and ran cultural programs with “At risk” young people in Western Sydney. At this time he concurrently worked as a community development officer for the Greek Orthodox Community of NSW. His first sojourn with the ECC of NSW was as an organiser for Spectrum, the first ever CALD youth conference. He currently works in refugee youth policy.

Justin Li, 24, is a lawyer in an Australian national law firm, having graduated from the University of New South Wales in 2004. His family migrated to Australia from Hong Kong when he was eight years old. He is currently a vice chair of the Ethnic Communities Council of NSW (ECC NSW) and is the editor of the ECC (NSW)’s monthly e-newsletters. He prepares the ECC (NSW)’s media responses to current issues affecting the multicultural community. Justin regularly attends and speaks at community functions.

Copyright FECCA 2007
Federation of Ethnic
Communities' Councils of Australia