Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, it's been a vibrant couple of weekends at home in the electorate of Lalor. I'm pleased to speak about those weekends here today. On 28 February, I was very pleased to attend the Wyndham Holi. This is the 12th year the Wyndham Holi have run this wonderful event. I want to thank Neha Kolape and the Wyndham Holi team for what was a terrific event, and, of course, the sponsors and all of those from the community who attended. It was a fabulous event, as Holi events across the outer west of Melbourne—the member for Gellibrand will attest—have been across the last few weeks.

On 7 March, this Saturday, I attended the Melbourne Telangana Forum International Women's Day celebration, which is in its second year. I was joined there by Sarah Connolly, the member for Laverton. I want to thank Lakshmi and the volunteers who work tirelessly to support community members across the western suburbs.

I followed that by attending the Aussie Bangla Sisterhood's Ramadan Eid exhibition at Eagle Stadium. This was a first for the outer west of Melbourne. There were 36 stalls, mostly small businesses run by local women, selling goods in preparation for Eid. I spent some time with Janatul Ferdous, meeting some of the stallholders and hearing the stories of families buying clothes for Eid celebrations in a few weeks.

That was followed by an iftar dinner that evening with the Victorian Bangladeshi Community Foundation. I want to thank President Morshed Kamal for the invitation. I was joined there by John Lister, the state member for Werribee. It was a beautiful evening, and I thanked them for the invitation and the opportunity to wish everyone a blessed Ramadan.

On Tuesday I look forward to my own International Women's Day event, where I'll be joined by about 160 women from around our community from various groups, not-for-profit organisations and even some of our school principals bringing along a few students. It's always a terrific event.

I also want to spend a moment more. I got to meet Dr Cynthia Maung, who founded the Mae Tao Clinic on the Thai-Myanmar border decades ago. She came to Werribee quite recently and was in Canberra last week. I met her here in Canberra with Ko Saulsman from the Myanmar Campaign Network and Saw Lwin Oo from the Australian Karen Organisation. I want to pay tribute to this wonderful physician and the work that she has done for decades supporting the Burmese community on that Thai border, who've been in those camps for such a long time. Her care for their health and her work with the Thai government and with our refugee community here is extraordinary.