South-Eastern Metropolitan Region multicultural communities
Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (13:51): India has a rich history of thousands of years, and I was delighted to join my colleague Trung Luu as the only state members of Parliament speaking at a festive local Indian JET Australia Foundation celebration representing 70 Indian and Hindu organisations. I want to thank the organisers and community for their wonderful welcome and friendship. It has been wonderful to join in celebrations for the Indian, Pakistani and Afghan independence days. I was delighted to speak at an Afghan Australian Philanthropic Association event and greet people from the Afghan Youth Association Australia, and I thank them for their warm welcome. Speaking at a ladies peace symposium with the auxiliary members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community was a highlight this weekend, and I applaud and support their wonderful educational community seminar to educate and encourage women and to create cross-faith dialogue on human rights. I thank and congratulate them for their friendship and excellent hospitality. Celebrating the Vu Lan festival with the Indochinese Elderly Refugees Association Victoria and Vietnamese Buddhists was a delight, and I was able to speak about our Liberal members and particularly Trung Luu and his survival as a child refugee on a boat with his dad. I greatly appreciated the significance of remembering the importance of family, particularly our parents and grandparents, and I thank them for the opportunity I had to attend and speak. I also want to say how much I enjoyed making friends and greeting multicultural leaders at the recent gala dinner, and I look forward to catching up with my many new friends in the days and months ahead.