Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Surprisingly, after that ‘speech’ that we just heard, I wish to talk about Harmony Day. Harmony Day is celebrated this Saturday, 21 March, which happens to correspond with the state election in which I will be very pleased to see the Bligh Labor government returned. Harmony Day is managed by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship and celebrates the cohesive and inclusive nature of our nation and promotes the benefits of cultural diversity. DIAC supports a range of community events and activities held to celebrate Harmony Day. The key message of Harmony Day is ‘everyone belongs’. It is about community participation, inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone. Since Harmony Day began 10 years ago, thousands of schools, community groups and organisations across Australia have hosted Harmony Day events.

Locally, the Redcliffe Multicultural Community Association in the electorate of Petrie are holding their Redcliffe Harmony Day multicultural festival for 2009. This will be their sixth year. They are holding this on Sunday, 22 March, from 11 am to 4 pm at the Redcliffe Botanic Gardens. This is a free event and a fantastic day out for family and friends. This is about bringing the community together. We have a host of wonderful nationalities in our local community that on this day truly come together and we get to see the different foods, the different clothes, the different dances of the different cultures that make up our local community.

There will be multicultural entertainment, delicious and exotic ethnic food stalls; there will be games for the children, face painting, arts, crafts, stalls—this is what Harmony Day is truly about. I am looking forward to going along on Sunday and celebrating this with my local community. We have a strong Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander community and Samoan community, and I know that on days like this we come together and we truly do embrace our different cultures. With my own multicultural background—my husband is Tongan—I think it is very important that our children and our neighbours and our broader community understand our different cultures and embrace them, but also embrace the things our nations have in common. That is what truly makes Australia the great nation that it is.