Thursday, 7 April 2022

Members statements

Religious festivals

Mr ONDARCHIE (Northern Metropolitan) (10:59): Can I take this opportunity now to wish everybody here a blessed and holy Easter time and a safe time as they travel on our roads during Easter. It is a good time to reflect on multicultural Victoria this morning. There has been a lot of activity happening in our multicultural community.

Can I start by thanking those many MPs who attended the Ramadan iftar dinner on Monday night, hosted by Ahmet Keskin and the Australian Intercultural Society. I thought it was a great night for interculturalism, if I can put it that way. So I pass on my thanks to all those members that attended.

It is also the time of the Holi festival amongst our subcontinent friends. That is the one where you get colour thrown all over you—a very colourful day, and I thank the many organisations who have run Holi festivals over the last week, including the Whittlesea Colour Carnival, which was run just last week in my own electorate.

It is also an important time, as I indicated, for Ramadan. Salaam alaikum to those who are observing the holy month of Ramadan. There will be many iftars in people’s homes, and I encourage members to go to those. I thank our Islamic community for their generosity at this very important time of sacrifice for them.

This last weekend was an opportunity to also celebrate the Sri Lankan Sinhalese and Tamil New Year at a great event held in Berwick with the member for Gembrook—a wonderful event—and I thank the organising committee for that great event.