Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Community Safety, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday, with the member for Casey, I had the great honour and privilege of visiting the Mahamevnawa Buddhist monastery in Mount Evelyn for the foundation stone ceremony for the stupa and also for the opening of the security gates and closed-circuit TV cameras. The stupa is the most sacred Buddhist building. It is where the Buddha's relics are enshrined. The stupa being built in Mount Evelyn at the Mahamevnawa Buddhist monastery is the very first stupa in Australia, which they're very excited about.

I very much thank Ravi Hewavisse and head Thero Bodhi Damma for their very kind invitation. I also acknowledge the hard work and warmth of caretaker Peter Cameron and all the great work of the Buddhist monks, who were very excited about this stone laying.

The primary focus there is meditation. Over 615,000 people practise Buddhism in Australia. It's a beautiful religion. The Buddhist monastery in Mount Evelyn sees Sri Lankan, Thai and Australian devotees frequent the temple for worship. Buddhist teachings are very relevant to modern life. The five precepts of Buddhism hold teachings for all of us.

It was great to see the closed-circuit TV cameras and the security gates in operation. They makes the devotees feel so much safer. I'm very proud to have secured the funding this is making the monks safer where they reside overnight.