Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

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I wish to thank from the bottom of my heart the Greek community and residents of Hindmarsh for the support they have shown me.

Not only for their support, but more importantly, l wish to congratulate and acknowledge everything they have achieved and offered as migrants to their new country, Australia.

I wanted to say these few words in the Greek language to acknowledge the Greeks' contribution to Australia, and my own cultural heritage.

I have 200 languages spoken within my electorate. I wish I could speak in each and every one of them. Unfortunately, I cannot. I will have to stick to Greek and English.

We also have a growing community of Indians, Chinese, Africans, Middle Easterns, just to name a few who are the new, emerging communities in my electorate. Diversity is a reality in Hindmarsh as it is in many electorates around the country. I want to be able to ensure that people celebrate their diversity, their cultural linguistics and their religious ways.

To win an election takes a lot of people to assist, and I have many, many people to thank: David Di Troia from UV; David Gray; Joe Szakacks, who is here in the gallery today; my grandkids as well, who are crying, but I will get on to them; Joseph Scales and Abbie Spencer from the ASU, who were absolutely brilliant; Linda White, the ASU national assistant secretary; Liz Temple from the CPSU; Jamie Newlan; Michael O'Connor; the SDA; CEPU; AMWU; MUA; CWU and CFMEU. Of course there are many volunteers: Abbie Spencer and Cheyne Rich, who were my campaign coordinator and campaign manager—I thank them for the hard work that they did on my campaign; Emily Gore; Angas Oehme; Sam Davies; Pam Nadar; Steven Choung; Peter Bijork; John Trainer, who has always been there supporting me as a former speaker of South Australia in the House and is now the Mayor of West Torrens; Frank Violi, from the Italian pensioners; George Peters, who is the president of the St George Greek Orthodox Community; Depak Bhardwaj and his family from the Indian community; Reggie Martin; Steven May; the Australian Labor Party sub-branch; the Hindmarsh FEC office bearers and members; Tim Looker, president of the Hindmarsh FEC; PLUS; Young Left; AYL. I also thank Nick Bolkus, who gave me my first opportunity in parliament; Premier Jay Weatherill; Paul Caicia; Mick Atkinson; Steph Key; Tom Koutsantonis and his wonderful staff including Zoi Papafilopoulis and Betty Livaditis; Susan Close; Stephen Mullighan; and Annabel Digance. And, of course, my parliamentary colleagues here in this place: Bill Shorten, Penny Wong, Mark Butler, Anne McEwen, Nick Champion, Brendan O'Connor, Maria Vamvakinou and everyone else that assisted.

This would not have been possible without the love and support of my family who are all here today. When I left this place in 2013 I had one grandchild. I now have three and I am very proud of them. To Wendy; my boys, George and Alex; their partners, Irene and Eleni; to my grandchildren, Stathi—who I give a big wave to—Mia and Lia: I thank them for what I have put them through over the years, especially Wendy. No-one else would put up with what I have put them through to campaign and to achieve my goals and the things that have got me here, so thank you from the bottom of my heart. There is nothing more important than family, and you quickly realise that when you are not in this place. It is the family that we all turn to. Thank you.

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