Thursday, 20 February 2025

 Vicki WARD (Eltham – Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Natural Disaster Recovery, Minister for Equality) (10:07): We celebrated Lunar New Year with the Nillumbik Chinese senior citizens association and the Eltham Lions Club. We had a fantastic day of welcome to the Year of the Snake. These are two wonderful local community groups who know how to bring community together and have fun. We saw many fantastic cultural performances, including ba duan jin exercises, a fan dancing performance, the singing of Lunar New Year songs and great ukulele playing. We had marquees for brush calligraphy, face painting and Chinese zodiac symbol artwork. I thank everyone for their hard work in creating such a fantastic day, with extra thanks to Veronica Lee, Hong and Peter Talbot for all the work they put into making the day such a success. I am very grateful to live in a community where we can come together to celebrate and appreciate the diverse cultures that make Victoria such a vibrant, inclusive and fun place to live.