Page 765 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 21 March 2017
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The ACT government does a lot to ensure that our new residents feel welcome in our community and that difference and culture are celebrated. The biggest occasion on Canberra’s event calendar is our three-day National Multicultural Festival dedicated to the message that Harmony Day embraces, that everyone belongs and that that is something to celebrate. The National Multicultural Festival has become a beloved event in the hearts of all Canberrans and it illustrates on the largest scale an embracement of our cultural diversity.
In the territory, we join in the 85 per cent of Australians who agree that multiculturalism has been good for Australia: the traditions, the food, the music. On these days and many others, those of us in Canberra choose to make these elements of foreign cultures a strength of our capital.
The government holds a commitment to celebrating and recognising the best advocates, businesses and educators who take on the message of Harmony Day and apply it in everything that they do. Canberrans make note annually of the best achievements of some of the 7.5 million people that have immigrated to Australia since the end of the Second World War through the ACT multicultural awards. The multicultural awards acknowledge those Canberrans who enrich our community and make Canberra such a great place to live.
One of these great Canberrans was Theo Notaras, who was a well-respected member of the community who happened to be of Greek descent. Mr Notaras was an enthusiastic supporter and pioneer in the integration of other cultures into the ACT. As the first president of the Greek community in Canberra, Mr Notaras dedicated much of his life to the city that he loved. Today we have the Theo Notaras Canberra Multicultural Centre that stands across from this Assembly as a testament to Mr Notaras and his vision for Canberra in which everyone belongs.
Madam Speaker, Mr Notaras’s centre has long since been a staple of the ACT government’s commitment to multiculturalism. It is a place where languages and culture can be shared, where new citizens to this territory can learn with others and receive help with settling into our community. The centre is a hub of many helpful organisations, all with the goal of improving and assisting those new and old to access the services that they need and to help develop communication in English.
This Harmony Day we should take inspiration from people like Mr Notaras and many other recipients of the ACT multicultural awards to see how we can best help ensure that we continue to live in Australia’s most inclusive city where everyone belongs. We must all take leadership to stand up against racial discrimination, in particular, and vilification in our community.
In concluding, I do feel I need to comment that I find it quite extraordinary that on Harmony Day, the same day as the UN International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the federal Liberal government is currently debating, in the media and in its party room, watering down racial vilification laws. I think that says a lot.
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