Page 764 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 21 March 2017
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up to new ideas, for contributing to our lives with their presence and their insights. After all, that is what makes the human experience for each of us so incredibly rich.
Happy Harmony Day, Madam Speaker! I present the following paper:
Harmony Day—Ministerial statement, 21 March 2017.
I move:
That the Assembly take note of the paper.
MR STEEL (Murrumbidgee) (11.09): Each year Canberrans are given the opportunity to celebrate that we no longer accept discrimination in our community. In our city and around the world we set aside a day in the calendar to recognise and celebrate our cultural diversity. Difference, encouragement and cultural respect are all part of the important message on this day. Harmony Day has occurred each year in Australia on 21 March since 1999 to coincide with the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The reason why that date is chosen is because the United Nations declaration is to redouble efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination into the future.
Since that historic declaration in 1966, communities such as ours here in Canberra have sought to embrace this message and celebrate the vibrancy that multiculturalism provides to everyday life. This government has always chosen to support and encourage this new part of our collective identity and I am proud to stand here today as part of an Assembly that recognises that the religious and cultural traditions of multicultural Australia enrich us all and do not divide us.
This day gives Canberrans the opportunity to stop and reflect that since the first Australians, around 300 different ancestries have since come to share in this nation. We live in a progressive city that chooses to respect these different backgrounds and on Harmony Day we celebrate them.
I celebrated this year’s Harmony Day on Saturday, 18 March when I attended the annual Harmony Day Sports Carnival hosted by the Migrant and Refugee Settlement Services of the ACT, or MARSS. I am pleased to see that members from both sides of this chamber could come together to recognise the importance of this special occasion.
The day was an exciting display of new cross-cultural friendship, diversity, health, movement and fun at the Australian Institute of Sport. The success of the tournament in which MARSS basketball, futsal and volleyball teams competed with other sporting teams from the Canberra community was a testament to the organisation’s hard work. The CEO, Dewani Bakkum, and the MARSS deserve to be congratulated.
Many migrants were competing in sports that they had only newly been introduced to, which was great to see. At the event it was great to hear from other multicultural groups who were also interested in establishing more multicultural sporting events throughout the year, including an outdoor soccer tournament.
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