Tuesday, 28 November 2023

Diwali

Matt FREGON (Ashwood) (13:46): As we come to the end of November, we also come to the end of another Diwali festival. It has been a fantastic month, starting with the Premier’s Diwali festival, which I was lucky enough to attend with many people. I and my colleagues have been to many events. The Diwali festival is something I have fallen in love with. It is not just good over evil or light over darkness, which are universal, but also the fact that we celebrate knowledge over ignorance. I think we can all take something from that to think about education for all of us. I also had the pleasure of co-hosting with my very good friend the member for Glen Waverley our own small festival, and I would just like to thank some of the people who came to that: Dr Sushil Kumar, our very hardworking Consul General of India; Carina Garland, the federal member for Chisholm; and, in no particular order, the South Indian Association of Victoria, the Uttar Pradesh Association of Australia, Hindi Niketan, the Australian Indian Seniors Association, Bharathi Academy, Bengali academy, the Bengali Association of Victoria, the Victoria Tamil Senior Citizens Benevolent Society, Hamro Nepali Pathshala Melbourne, Preet Kriti at IndianCare, Sri Venkata Krishna Brundavana, South Asian Community Link Group, SKGA, Nepali Association of Victoria, Sewa International, the Academy of Indian Music & Cultural Studies and the Federation of Indian Associations of Victoria, to name a few.