Independent MP Dai Le recounts refugee journey in powerful maiden speech

Independent MP Dai Le has given a powerful maiden speech to parliament in which she described fleeing Vietnam as a child and spending years in refugee camps before settling in Australia.

Le's address was also noteworthy for her attire. She was wearing an ao dai – a traditional Vietnamese dress – which was emblazoned with the Australian flag.

"Australia gave me hope, and gave me new life and opportunities," she told 9News.

"And I am an Australian but wearing my traditional dress which is Vietnamese so I combine both worlds, the two worlds I constantly straddle."

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Le's speech included a moving passage about her journey to Australia from Vietnam as a refugee.

"I remember the moment when we thought we would die when a huge storm hit our boat," she said.

"I ... remember my sister and I hanging on for dear life while my mother held onto her. I remember being soaking wet as the ocean hit us in the rain poured down. I remember how my face almost hit the ocean as our boat dropped so hard from the storm and my mother's warning that I had to hold onto my sister and the plastic canister just in case the boat would tip over until we could find one another.

"Trying to peer through the tarp, all I could hear was the storm and was terrified we couldn't survive. Because none of us could swim...

"The storm subsided the next morning but everyone was exhausted. I remember seeing bodies lying on the boat like dead corpses."

Le also used the address to call on the government to do more to capitalise on the untapped workforce in her south-west Sydney seat of Fowler, which has a large migrant community and a higher-than-average unemployment rate.

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"We have migrants and refugees with professional qualifications who are now working in underqualified occupations," Le said.

"We must work to swiftly create pathways for recognition of their qualifications so that we can engage their skills in our community."

She also described the community as the "forgotten people and yet we are the backbone of Australia".

Le's friends and family, as well as other refugees from different countries, were in the public gallery for the speech, and gave her a standing ovation.

Le was a former Liberal Party candidate but won the seat of Fowler in this year's election ahead of former Labor senator Kristina Kenneally, who had been parachuted into what had been assumed to be a safe seat.