Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A few weeks ago in this chamber, I spoke about some of the disturbing incidents in which some law-abiding Australian citizens have been made to feel like they do not belong in our society, including violence and bigotry against people from Sikh and Muslim backgrounds. So I think it is very fitting today as we lead into Harmony Day this Saturday to reiterate—

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The theme of Harmony Day is that everyone belongs. It is wonderful to see our community embrace Harmony Day and embrace the various activities associated with it. I will just mention a few.

I was very pleased that the federal parliamentary Labor Party caucus participated in A Taste of Harmony last Tuesday. This great initiative is done in conjunction with Harmony Day. It has some very high profile ambassadors. It is Australia's largest workplace event for celebrating cultural diversity in our workplaces. The idea is to share the stories of our many different backgrounds over a morning tea or a lunch and to bring various tastes that demonstrate Australia's multiculturalism. It was very pleasing to see members of the caucus bringing along items such as Lebanese sweets from Lakemba, Greek cakes from Melbourne and French pastries from Canberra. It was a wonderful exhibition of Harmony Day in our parliament.

I will be attending a number of Harmony Day events in my electorate and local communities over the next couple of days, and there are a couple I would like to mention. The Super Sikhs Sports and Cultural sports team, which operates out of Glenwood, actually has a Harmony Day Tri Series Cup schedule. I predict that several of our future cricket internationals will be drawn from Greenway and, I am quite certain, from the Super Sikhs Sports and Cultural association, which will be very pleasing to see. They will be celebrating Harmony Day in Glenwood this weekend, and I look forward to joining them.

I also look forward to joining the Harman Foundation at their ceremony at Glenwood Park Lake, on Sunday morning. The Harman Foundation is a local group based in Stanhope Gardens, in my electorate. The Harman Foundation was established in the memory of Harman Preet Singh, in 2013, to raise awareness of grief, loss, depression, anxiety and other mental health issues, through seminars and face-to-face consultations. The foundation also provides victims with small financial assistance to tide them over in difficult times. They believe in empowering the community with the wealth of family values to carry on Harman's legacy at all stages. That is a wonderful thing to have initiated, and I look forward to that.

I also look forward to joining in the celebrations for the Sydney Chithirai Festival, a Tamil community festival that is conducted by the Tamil Arts and Culture Association. It is a very big event that is held at Rosehill racecourse and it will be held this Sunday. It will feature popular Tamil folk artists, folk musicians and performers, and will be supported and sponsored by the Tamil Nadu government in India. They expect over 1,500 families, mainly Tamils of India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Fiji, South Africa and Mauritius, to attend. Having attended this festival in past years, I know what a success it will be this year and I am very much looking for to that.

Tomorrow I will be very pleased to be joining my old school, Saint Bernadette's, Lalor Park, for their Harmony Day liturgy. It is something quite special to be invited to be a special guest at my old school for occasions such as this. They have very kindly provided me with the reading that I am going to be practising it over the next 24 hours. I think it is very special to point out, as part of their liturgy, that Australia is home to 22 million people and over 260 different languages are spoken in Australia, including Indigenous languages. We identify with people from around 270 cultural inheritances.

The key message of Harmony Day is that everyone belongs, meaning that all Australians are a welcome part of our country, regardless of their background. The idea that we have people from a number of different cultures is one of our strengths; however, we must continue to work together to encourage participation, inclusiveness and respect for all community members.

I know that Harmony Day is celebrated in many other schools, including my daughter, Octavia's, childcare centre. They will be celebrating it probably as we speak. It is wonderful to see an area of Sydney which is so diverse to have organisations that are very encouraging of celebrating our diversity. I want to congratulate Catherine and all the staff at Octavia's childcare centre. I am sure they are having a wonderful time today. I am sure we can all agree that when we see children in our electorate the way they interact with one another without judgement, we are reminded that racism and bigotry are not normal, and that Australia has a very bright future when we see the calibre and quality of our young people.