VIETNAMESE FARMERS' ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Mrs VLAHOS (Taylor) (15:38): I rise today to speak about the Vietnamese Farmers' Association New Year's celebration, which I recently attended in late January at the Virginia Community Centre in my electorate. Traditionally, it is an annual event, and I am pleased to have been able to attend for a second time. There were about 400 people in attendance. I was pleased to enjoy the evening with Mr Hieu Van Le, the Lieutenant Governor of South Australia and Chairman of the South Australian Multicultural and Ethnic Affairs Commission, and his wife; the Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Grace Portolesi; and the Hon. Jack Snelling, our new Treasurer.

Also in attendance was the new Mayor of the City of Playford, the good Glenn Docherty; Mr Nguyen Thanh Phu, the President of the Vietnamese Farmers' Association of South Australia; Mr Phung Phuong Duy, Chairman of the Organising Committee for the event; and the South Australian President of the Hoa Hao Buddhist Congregation, who I have spoken of in this place before.

The annual event, which brings together members of the Vietnamese community, is very important. In this area, which is dominated by the fruit and vegetable growing areas of the northern plains, the people in my electorate share this event and enjoy attending it. This year they were celebrating the arrival of the Vietnamese Year of the Cat, which is different from the 2011 Chinese Year of the Rabbit, which commenced over the weekend.

During the ceremony, minister Portolesi, in the spirit of 'li xi' (which brings good luck through giving money), presented the Vietnamese community and the farmers' association with a $3,000 cheque as a grant made towards the cost of the festival under the Multicultural Grants Scheme. This grant brings to more than $20,000 funds provided to the association through the Multicultural Grants Scheme since 2002.

This year, the Tet Nguyen Dan (or simply Tet) Festival ushers in the Asian spring, and, despite early flooding in October and November, many farmers this year have enjoyed a very profitable year, and they are looking very favourably towards the 2011 farming year. Unfortunately, the recent floods in Queensland and Victoria, whilst they have been bad for those states, may present a good opportunity for South Australian growers to increase their profit margins with respect to cucumbers and the other vegetables they sell to the market because of the flood damage.

The Vietnamese community has been very generous in its support of the Queensland Flood Appeal in South Australia under the leadership of Mr Tran Cong and some of the Vietnamese farmers in Virginia, and together they have raised about $35,000 for people in the other states who have been affected by flooding.

The Vietnamese Farmers' Association of South Australia was established in 1991 to respond to the needs of the Vietnamese farming community, and the association has around 270 members in the Virginia and wider northern plains area. Membership is on a family basis, so the number of individuals in this association is actually much higher than the 270 I mentioned earlier.

They have been working very hard on fundraising for a number of years towards the creation of a Vietnamese cultural centre, which will be near the Virginia Horticultural Centre in the main street of Virginia. The first building is about to commence very shortly, and they have worked very hard to achieve this. It is estimated that the building will be built on about 6,000 square metres of association land and will host major functions and regular get-togethers for local farmers. The association also hopes that this will include memorials to those lost in the Vietnam War and possibly house special guests and visitors who come to the northern plains of Adelaide to visit Vietnamese relatives, family and other dignitaries of the area.

Recently, their fundraising activities have been dedicated to the project, and over the forthcoming years they will continue to fund this project. Besides holding fundraising events, such as concerts and dinner dances, they also receive the support of many local businesses. Together with the federal government support secured via the local member, Nick Champion MP (the federal member for Wakefield), the farmers have secured some additional federal funding to assist in this project.

In conclusion, I would like to praise the Vietnamese Farmers' Association of SA for their tireless fundraising efforts towards furthering the strong relationship with the Vietnamese culture and the South Australian community, particularly on the northern plains of Adelaide; and also their generosity with the recent flood donations they have made to those people who have been affected in Queensland and Victoria.