Thursday, 31 October 2024

 Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (10:05): It was wonderful to attend a number of Diwali events in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. It was great to attend the Hume Diwali Mela celebration with Liberal candidate for Calwell Usman Ghani, and it was great to meet with so many stallholders and speak to a lively crowd. I would like to thank Raj Mann for the invitation. I also attended the Northern Diwali on the weekend in South Morang with my colleagues Richard Welch and Nick McGowan, which was a great family celebration. I would just like to note that one of the pillars of Diwali is unity, and I would like to put on record that only the Leader of the Opposition was invited to the Premier’s Diwali, and community leaders even had to push them to do that. No other opposition MPs were invited despite most Labor MPs being in attendance. If Jacinta Allan and Ms Stitt want to hold a Labor dinner, it should be paid for by the Labor Party, not the taxpayer. I note that many community leaders were disappointed by the government’s actions in this regard.