Lunar New Year
Matthew BACH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (09:40): I want to put on record my thanks to the Asian Business Association of Whitehorse for putting on a fabulous festival a couple of weekends ago to mark the beginning of the Lunar New Year, the Year of the Rabbit. For our friends in the Vietnamese–Australian community it is the Year of the Cat; nonetheless this particular festival was to mark the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit. I am really privileged, as is the President, to represent a part of our state that has a particularly high proportion of folks who have come here over the years from China, obviously from the beginning many moons ago, a long time before my family arrived on these shores, during the gold rushes and ever since. People who have come here from China and other Asian countries have obviously made the most extraordinary contribution to multicultural Victoria. It was great to be there, again with representatives from across the aisle, to mark the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit – for our friends in the Vietnamese community, the Year of the Cat – and so a very happy new year.