Wednesday, 11 September 2024

South-Eastern Metropolitan Region multicultural communities

Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:20): (1134) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister Stitt. The action that I am seeking is that the minister provides an update on the supports being provided for the diverse communities of the south-east of Melbourne. The South-Eastern Metropolitan Region in particular is the most diverse part of our state, possibly the nation, and it is home to many, many fantastic multicultural communities. I was very excited to see numerous local community organisations benefit from a share of $9.7 million in funding from the latest round of Multicultural Community Infrastructure Fund funding.

Nine organisations indeed in my electorate were successful, including the Australian Indian Community Centre, which is at Kingsley Close in Rowville. It is a terrific centre. I have had the opportunity of attending several events there, including a recent Samagam festival with lots of great performances of music and other cultural events just a few weeks ago, and I would like to thank Vasan and the whole team there for putting that on. Indeed it was a terrific celebration, made all the more better by the fact we had some new floors paid for by this funding, which made the whole place look very schmick and tidy and up to standard.

Nick McGowan interjected.

Michael GALEA: Indeed I was very disappointed not to see you there, Mr McGowan, at that event, because I believe at one point –

Nick McGowan: Where was my invitation?

Michael GALEA: You were meant to be there. You were on the list. I think you were waylaid somewhere else, but I was very disappointed that we did not get to touch base at that centre. But there will be many more opportunities because that is a terrific centre in the Rowville area, not just indeed for the Indian community but for many other cultural groups as well who they host on that site. We have also seen other community groups such as Digamber Jain Sansthan Melbourne Incorporated, which is receiving funding to renovate and upgrade their centre, which is also in Rowville.

I am very proud to see that this fund has supported all manner of wonderful multicultural communities, including Indian, Sri Lankan, Tamil, Afghan, Fijian, Bosnian, Albanian, Arab, Turkish, Hazara, Iranian, Iraqi, Pakistani, Jordanian, Lebanese, Syrian and Telugu groups, indeed as well as across the Hindu, Islamic, Sikh, Jain, Temple and Druze faiths. It adds to the vast amounts of funding that have been invested by this government since 2014, and to reiterate, the action that I am seeking is that the minister updates the house on supports being provided for our many fantastic multicultural community groups like the ones I have mentioned.