Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A very special event is occurring in my electorate at this very moment. It's the first ever Broady Poetry Slam workshop and it is being held at the Hume Global Learning Centre. This series of workshops, which will run every Tuesday for the next six weeks, is being hosted by the Hume Interfaith Network Youth Group—HIN Youth, as it's otherwise known. The Broady Poetry Slam aims to give the young people of Calwell a chance to express themselves through the written form. They can either rap, sing or use spoken poetry to essentially find expression on issues of identity and sense of belonging in a safe and respectful environment. The workshop is hoping to foster pride in our community and create positive reinforcement in our young people's faith and culture.

Our youth are the future leaders of this country. I want to congratulate our two recently selected ambassadors from HIN Youth, Salat Youhana and Mohamad Yusess. Both have been invited to present to a subcommittee of the Victorian Premier's Jobs and Investment Panel on how to address youth unemployment issues in our area. These young people are being mentored through the Hume Interfaith Network, and it's the work of this very important initiative that I also want to refer to here today.

Established in 2001, the Hume Interfaith Network identified an urgent need for all of Hume's faith leaders to come together to help foster understanding across the many faiths and cultures represented in my electorate. For the last 16 years, the Hume Interfaith Network has been instrumental in strengthening social justice and social cohesion by deepening mutual respect and promoting community participation and wellbeing through their various activities, forums and conferences. Some of these events include open days for our mosques and churches, reciting multifaith prayers at the commencement of Hume council meetings and, more recently, our multifaith ceremony service held during Harmony Day each year, with the first multifaith ceremony held in March 2015 at the Broadmeadows Town Hall seeing some 300 members of the Calwell community gather together in celebration of faith.

Archdeacon Judi Pollard, who was chair of the Hume Interfaith Network between 2015 and 2017, was largely responsible for enacting this ceremony. I want to make special mention of Judi for the leadership and guidance she has given to the Calwell community. I want to congratulate the recently elected new chair of the Hume Interfaith Network, Miss Aynur Simsirel, from the Islamic community and the new deputy chair, Deacon Saleem Goga, from Our Lady Guardian of the Plants Chaldean Catholic Church. The Hume Interfaith Network's executive covers all the major faiths in Calwell . Due to the hard work in the past by previous members and the dedication of the new executive moving forward, I know this network has the ability to do great things.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 16:34 to 17:31