Greek Community of Melbourne (GCM) President Bill Papastergiadis received an invitation on Thursday from the Committee of Public Governance, Public Order and Justice to discuss Greek voting rights of expatriates in their country of residence.

Specifically, Greek Deputy Minister Sophia Voultepsi invited Mr Papastergiadis to attend a meeting held at Greek Parliament in order to convey his views regarding the bill on voting rights that was voted by all parties last month.

Mr Papastergiadis regretted not being available for the meeting until Monday, however – due to the gravity of the issue – proposed that he be given the opportunity to share his views by telephone.

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Invitations to the meeting, to have been attended by Greek representatives from the global diaspora, were received only days ahead of the event making it hard for people abroad to take part.

Following complaints regarding the short notice, it was decided that all representatives of diaspora groups who could not attend the meeting would be able to participate by sending their viewpoints via email.

It is interesting that a government department could not give diaspora representatives abroad enough notice to be present in person or at least have arranged for attendance via Skype.