Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

( In the last couple of weeks I have had the extraordinary privilege of celebrating Australia Day with a range of communities in my electorate from Lebanese to Maltese, Indian and Tamil. Almost every culture lives in Parramatta. We have the world in us. The thing that struck me most, having spent those days with them, was the extraordinary love they show for their first country. They build their lives in this country based on this foundation of strength, of knowing who they are, where they came from and who came before them. They bring that culture to this country and build a life based on this strength.

A little later in the afternoon on Australia Day, I was welcomed to country by Uncle Greg, one of the Burramattagal clan of the Darug nation. I realised at that point that I did not know a single word of the language which was spoken on the land on which I live. It occurred to me that as a nation we might be a profoundly different and more wonderful nation if we carried in our hearts the love of what came before us that so many of our new migrants carry for their first country.

I committed to do better. I committed to learn at least some words in the language of the land on which I live and find out more about the culture that came before the one that I live now. We can be a much better nation if we move into the future based on the strength and love of our past.