Highlights
- Camera operator and editor Ghaith Nadir and his family waited in Indonesia before arriving in Australia as refugees.
- Mr Nadir returned to the country for the first time recently but this time as part of the media contingent following the Prime Minister's official visit.
- Making the event even more special was the fact that Mr Nadir arrived on the Prime Minister's aeroplane.
In 2007, Mr Nadir said he and his family had decided to leave Iraq in search of a better life with their first destination being Indonesia.
The editor and videographer told SBS Arabic24 that the family had then applied for asylum and began thinking of its next move.
“Our future was unknown. We’d been waiting and we knew that this wait might take us to a better place and a better future,” Mr Nadir said.
He said after a four-year wait, the family was able to travel and be settled in Australia.
“My stay in Indonesia was difficult for me because it reminded me of our situation in Iraq,” he said.
“I was thinking about my studies and my future, and I was asking myself ‘Why am I here?’, ‘How long will it be before I can work and study again’ and so on.”
Mr Nadir said arriving in Australia had truly been a dream come true.
Ghaith Nadir (centre) is part of the "press pack" which follows Prime Minister Antony Albanese. Source: Ghaith Nadir
We basked in our new life even though we were starting from scratch.
“We began to study, work, and learn in this beautiful country that gave us citizenship four years after our arrival.
“I am proud to be of Iraqi-Australian nationality.”
After six years of study, Mr Nadir said he had gotten a job in Wagga Wagga with Channel 7, closely followed by a position with Channel 9 in Canberra.
And 10 years to the day that he had arrived in Australia, he began working as a camera operator for Channel 9 based in Parliament House.
The coincidences don’t stop there - when Mr Nadir returned to Indonesia, the halfway point of his refugee exodus, it was as part of the "press pack" accompanying Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on his official visit to Australia's northern neighbour.
“The feeling was indescribable with many others on the plane asking me how I felt,” he said. 
He said that apart from sheer elation, he was thinking about his parents and how hard they had worked to get him to the point where he was now in his life.
Ghaith Nair (right) during the election campaign with Mr Albanese, his partner Jodie Haydon and son, Nathan. Source: Ghaith Nadir
