Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Shaun Tan for his achievement in winning an Oscar for best animated feature with The Lost Thing. Shaun was born and raised in Fremantle, and I am sure he would acknowledge the benefit of growing up in a place that values the arts; that values creativity; that is raffish, multicultural, outward-looking and comfortable in its own skin, all at the same time.

His wonderful book The Arrival refuses easy categorisation. You could call it a picture book, as it has no words. You could call it a children’s book, as it is easily understood by children. But it can also be accurately regarded as a piece of profound social comment for the way that it gets to the heart of the migrant experience, for the way that it makes a subtle, powerful argument for tolerance, compassion and multiculturalism. In that way, it is a very Fremantle piece of art.

Shaun Tan is a groundbreaking and distinctive Australian artist, and I am sure he would be the first to recognise that his special gift was nurtured in Fremantle by arts organisations like the Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre and the Spare Parts Puppet Theatre. I know that the Fremantle community is proud of Shaun, and again I congratulate him on his achievement in winning the Oscar and on the sum of his art to date. We look forward to seeing more of his wonderful, clear-sighted, brave and beautiful work in the future.