MALTESE NATIONAL DAY

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (16:30): On Saturday night I had the enormous privilege of representing the Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Grace Portolesi, at the celebration of the Maltese National Day at a dinner dance organised by the Maltese Guild of South Australia. It was a fantastic and, I have to say, pretty rowdy night towards the end in Findon. We were joined by the Mayor of Charles Sturt council, Kirsten Alexander, and her husband Neil, whom I sat with, Charles Sturt councillor Edgar Agius, who is also president of the Maltese Community Council, Joseph Vella and Joseph Briffa, the president and the secretary respectively of the Maltese Guild, and about 400 people from the local Maltese community.

The Maltese ambassador to Australia also sent a congratulatory message that night. There were also three busloads of Maltese community members from Melbourne, who drove over for the occasion and to spend a few days travelling and experiencing the city and the Adelaide Hills. Indeed, some of the guests seemed to be enjoying our South Australian wines before the evening had even begun.

The Maltese national day is formally observed on 8 September each year and originally marked two significant and momentous events in Maltese history. Firstly, the day in 1565 that the Maltese successfully drove the invading Turks from their country. Secondly, it marks the day in 1943 that Malta triumphed over the axis forces after a three-year siege. In fact, Madam Speaker, the contribution that Malta made to victory during both world wars was massively out of proportion to the country's modest size. During the siege in the 1940s Malta was on the receiving end of one of the fiercest and most sustained bombing attacks in military history. In the month of April 1942 alone, the Nazis carried out 9,000 air raids and the citizens of Malta had to contend with an average of nine air raids per day.

During World War I, Malta was known as the 'Nurse of the Mediterranean' because of its care for wounded Anzac soldiers evacuated from Gallipoli, and so the solid relationship that exists today between Malta and Australia was forged in the collective suffering of the First World War. I am really pleased that this fact has been recognised through the construction of an Anzac monument in Floriana.

Recently a huge fundraising drive was undertaken by the Maltese community to construct this monument in the Argotti Botanical Gardens. This monument will memorialise the 270 World War I Australian and New Zealand soldiers buried in Malta. According to Joseph Briffa, the secretary of the Maltese Guild, the South Australian Maltese community raised over $30,000 for this memorial. Mr Briffa travelled to Malta earlier this year in June and July and presented the money to the monument's organisers. It is hoped that the monument will be completed soon, and hopefully in time for Anzac Day in 2012.

Finally, it should be noted that over time the Maltese National Day has also been adopted by Maltese at home and in Australia to commemorate the securing of independence from Great Britain on 21 September 1964. The evening also served as a celebration of the remarkably compassionate, strong and resilient spirit of the Maltese people generally. As most of us here would be aware, generations of Maltese helped to build our state and our nation. A small number of Maltese came to South Australia in the early part of last century, many settling and working in Port Pirie and the surrounding area. Many Maltese also worked at places such as the Murat Bay gypsum mine and the BHP mining and shipping plants at Iron Knob and Whyalla.

A second wave of immigration followed the Second World War and about 1,500 Maltese settled in our state between 1947 and 1961. By 1966 the number of people of Maltese descent was over 2,200. At the 2006 census, 1,629 South Australians said they had been born in Malta and about 5,000 South Australians claimed Maltese ancestry. Almost 154,000 people in Australia claim Maltese ancestry, making it one of the largest Maltese communities in the world outside Malta.

I want to publicly thank the Maltese Guild and the wider Maltese community for their hospitality on Saturday night and the Minister for Multicultural Affairs for the opportunity to attend. After the speeches the evening got rowdier, and they celebrated their national day in what I was to learn was a very typical Maltese style.