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

I too rise to speak on this very important motion and I congratulate the member for Scullin for moving it and others who have spoken in this place this morning about Harmony Day and Harmony Week. Harmony Week is an event which is designed to celebrate Australia's diversity, an important event. When we look at Australia, we see people from every corner of the world that have made this beautiful country home. But, very importantly, our First Nations people have been here for up to 60,000 years, and we should never lose sight of that.

I represent an electorate that has over 180 different nationalities and ethnicities. To give you an example, this weekend alone, I attended the Croatian Club for a very big event that they had yesterday; and Nowruz, the Persian new year, on Saturday, which was celebrated this year in conjunction with Harmony Day. It was a great event, with people from the Middle East—Iran, Iraq and all over. It is a big, big event that is celebrated in their homelands. That gives you some idea. I think we are extremely lucky as members of parliament that we actually get to see in our communities the different mix of people who have made their homes here in Australia.

One of the things that underpin our harmony is our multicultural policy that we have had since the late seventies and early eighties. Australia was a very different place, when you look at the 1700s. The majority of people were of British or Irish stock, and that all changed. It changed because people fought hard for those changes, because they understood that the only way for us to have a society that held together and where we respected one another was by giving every person that came to this nation to become an Australian equal opportunities, without discrimination, without bias, without any of those things that we see in many other countries. For example, in some countries around the world, if you are of a particular ethnicity, you cannot work in the public service or you cannot attend university. You cannot do things that we take for granted here. Imagine what Australia could have been like if our laws weren't managed the way they are today. Our society is one of the greatest successes of the world—our multicultural society, where everyone is respected and treated equally by the law, and it is so important to keep that going because it is what underpins our harmony.

Sure, Harmony Day is great. It's fantastic; it's about celebrating our communities. But the reality is that multiculturalism is about walking in someone else's shoes and understanding that they may be a bit different from me, or you, Madam Deputy Speaker Owens, but we are all Australians working together for a common goal—to better this country and to ensure that we live happily, in harmony, without discrimination, regardless of race, religion, colour of skin et cetera. To give you an example, as I said, on the weekend I attended the Croatian Club. I went to the Nowruz new year. Yesterday we had wreath laying ceremonies in my electorate. I have one of the largest Greek communities in Australia in my electorate, and it's a Greek Independence Day this week, but the ceremonies were all held yesterday and we laid wreaths. Every week, I attend everything from a Coptic church to ceremonies in Hindu temples to festivals; you would think that you were in another place in another corner of the world. That is one of the greatest assets that this country has, and we should always protect it and ensure that we build on it to give us this beautiful thing that we have that we call multiculturalism.

Australia is like looking at a tapestry, all different colours of threads. Individually, you can't see the beauty, but, when you put it all together and you see that great big tapestry, that is our multicultural Australia. We are so lucky, and we all benefit from it. We must ensure that we continue to celebrate days like Harmony Day but also, at the same time, walk in the others' shoes and understand what they've gone through, their trials and tribulations, and to live peacefully in this wonderful of country of ours.

See this speech in context