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After serving as councilor for four years with the City of Cockburn "I felt it was time to step up which is when I pursued a seat with the State Government and have been fortunate enough to have the support of the residents in my electorate,” stated Yaz Mubarakai, newly elected Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) of Western Australian, in his email responses to Parsiana. He is the first Zoroastrian MLA in Australia at a time when there is not a single Zoroastrian elected representative in the state legislative assemblies in India. Mubarakai, who contested on a Labor Party ticket in Jandakot, defeated Joe Francis from the Liberal Party who had held the seat since 2008, according to Cockburn Gazette of March 14. 2017. The Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the Parliament of Western Australia and comprises 59 members elected from single member electoral districts by a system of preferential voting, it is explained on the website www.parliament.wa.gov.au
"The Labor Party has the right values, promoting equal opportunity for all… Their focus has always been based on better education, health, jobs and infrastructure,” said Mubarakai. As he had declared at the time of his electoral campaign, "I believe Jandakot needs a real plan to deal with congestion along local roads… and the building of the North Lake Road Bridge. I am committed to ensuring our community has the best healthcare possible that puts patients’ needs first.” He further added, "We’ll stop Colin Barnett (29th Premier of Australia) bringing overseas workers to take jobs in nursing, manufacturing, teaching and in our construction sites; we’ll build METRONET (rail project to improve public transport in Western Australia) locally and with local workers; and we’ll keep Western Power in public hands.”

To address the meth crisis (high consumption of the drug methamphetamine in Western Australia), Mubarakai advocated the creation of "a Meth Border Force — a 100-officer unit to patrol our ports and interstate roads; bring rehabilitation centers into our communities and prisons; make meth traffickers face life in prison.”
"I have always had an avid interest in politics,” Mubarakai told Parsiana. In Australia, where post offices can be privately owned, he is the proprietor of the one at Success. Over the years he has been "serving the community, trying to make a difference, bring about change.” He also owns Majestic India and Café Royal at Cockburn Central. "I set up my first business in Perth 12 years ago. Anyone in business would share the view that it is a challenge. There are ups and downs and it takes a lot of hard work, dedication, sacrifice and an entrepreneurial mindset in order to succeed,” stressed the 41-year-old businessman cum politician.
Before migrating to Perth in 1997, Mubarakai had worked  in the marketing department of MTV. He had earned his Masters in International Business, Marketing, Commerce and Finance, and a diploma in Information Technology from Edith Cowan University, Perth. After his schooling at the then only English medium school in Dahanu, he completed his BCom from Bombay’s H. R. College. Married to Jero, the couple have two children, son Zyshawn, aged 11, and daughter MJ (Maherzia), aged nine. They visit India every alternate year to keep the children "close to their roots.”

 

 

 

Although three months ago he was planning to opt out of the election race when his sister Farizia Mundroina’s nine-year-old son Tyreez tragically collapsed and died on the basketball field (see "Life is so fragile,” Zoroastrians Abroad, Parsiana, January 7, 2017), with the support of his family he chose to continue "as a way of respecting Tyreez’s memory,” it was reported in perthnow, Sunday Times, March 19. Mubarakai’s success was described by the newspaper as "one of the most remarkable victories in Labor’s history-making landslide election win.”
While Mubarakai acknowledges that his values have been influenced by the Zoroastrian religion’s cardinal tenets of "good thoughts, good words, good deeds,” work commitments do not permit him to engage in all community activities. "I try to do the best I can given the time restraints I have,” he wrote.