Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Hansard source

This private members' motion seems to be a great opportunity for people to say very nice things about the member for Barton, and I will be no exception. It's a great motion that the member for Barton has brought, and I had the honour of accompanying her on a delegation to Port Moresby and meeting her mother. Hearing the member for Barton talk about her upbringing previously, I can tell you the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree. Her mother's a truly remarkable person doing some amazing things for the people of Papua New Guinea, and her daughter's making a fine contribution here.

It gives me an opportunity to talk about the Shepparton Interfaith Network. We've heard a lot of people talk about how diversity and faith express themselves in their community, and I've said often in this place, including in my first speech, that Greater Shepparton, the town that I live and grew up in, is one of the great examples of multiculturalism in this country. One of the key elements of that is the Shepparton Interfaith Network. It is made up of Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Jewish people. The Catholic priest, Monsignor Peter Jeffrey, was one of the instigators of it, along with another a number of other people. It gives the architecture for people of different faiths around Shepparton to explore each other's religions, cultures and to talk about issues that are very important, particularly when we're faced with the challenges of social cohesion that Australia has been rocked by in recent times. It was with great sombreness that the Shepparton Interfaith Network came together for a candlelight vigil at the site of the former synagogue in Shepparton in the wake of the Bondi tragedy. To see all of these people from different religions, particularly the imam from the mosque talking about what the Islam religion really should be, and is, for most people—peace and tolerance and love—was a great example to all of us of people coming together to live with different faiths.

I've been reflecting on why Shepparton is such a great example of multiculturalism, and I want to explore this further. I think the region has things for the rest of Australia to learn. Basically, waves of migration came to the region, even before World War II but particularly afterwards, from southern Europe, firstly. Shepparton was where people went. Basically, they got off the boat, and the unskilled labour was in Shepparton because we had the fruit farms and dairy farms. People turned up there. Within a generation, most of those people owned farms, and there was no exception no matter where they'd come from. There was always this egalitarian nature, and I always say about Shepparton that your attitude to life, your work ethic and your ability to be an entrepreneur and make a business matters a bit more than who you pray to and what you look like. And I think that's been a really important part of why we've succeeded in multiculturalism.

The other thing I've reflected on is that the first mosque came to Shepparton in 1960—the Albanian community, so it was a European Islamic tradition that came first of all to the Greater Shepparton region. Middle Eastern people from the Islamic tradition came after that, but it's meant that we've never seen some of the fundamentalism and radicalism that we've seen, unfortunately, in some other parts of the world and some other parts of Australia. The Albanian community has welcomed us, and, then, after that, the Iraqi mosque, the Turkish mosque and the Afghan mosque followed in welcoming the rest of the community into their faith. Look at this as a faith, but it more than, 'This is our faith.' It is: 'We our Sheppartonians first. We are members of the Goulburn Valley, and Islam is our faith'—or Christianity or Hinduism or Sikhism. That has been one of the success stories of the Greater Shepparton region.

I've written to some community leaders and I want to know more about their impressions of why it's worked in Shepparton. We've got some challenges in other parts of the world, and, when I get that information, I'll share it with the community.

I want to thank the member for Barton for bringing forward this motion. I think it's important that we talk about the things we agree on, as well as talk about the things we disagree on. And this has given us an opportunity to do the former.

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