Prospect Greek Festival

Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (15:22): I rise to say a huge 'syncharitiria' to the Prospect Greek Festival. For those who might not understand my poor attempt at Greek, that was to say congratulations to the Prospect Greek Festival, which put on the most incredible event on Saturday evening that I was privileged to attend with my partner and children. Thousands of people descended on St Anthony's church in Prospect to celebrate the inaugural Prospect Greek Festival in our local community.

It was an amazing celebration. There was music, dance, food, family, faith—it really was community at its best. I was privileged to say a few words on the evening, but really the star of the show was my daughter, Audrey, who was able to get up on the stage with me and give a little message to the community in Greek. She learns Greek at our local primary school. Her little speech that she did in Greek was really the spirit of the whole festival. There were so many young children there and it was a wonderful way of just being able to pass on the beautiful culture, the beautiful customs of our Greek culture in our community to the next generation.

Greek people really know how to party, and there were thousands of people enjoying the beautiful cuisine, but more importantly the dance floor. There may have been a few tears from my daughter, Audrey, when I had to almost drag her off the dance floor later in the evening because she was having so much fun. It is one of the world's oldest cultures—the culture that gave us democracy, the culture that gave us philosophy—and to be able to all come together to celebrate and importantly pass on some of these beautiful traditions and customs to the next generation, as I said, was really beautiful. It was a wonderful evening.

I turn 40 this year and my dream was always to go to Greece. It is not going to happen but I have to say that attending this festival on Saturday night I actually did feel like my 40^th birthday dream came true and I actually did get to travel to Greece, even if it was just for one evening.

Some of the distinguished guests that we had at the festival on the evening were His Grace Bishop Silouan of Adelaide; our very Reverand Father Nicholas Pavlou (Father Nick); our Consul General of Greece, Alexandra Theodoropoulou; my federal colleague the federal member for Adelaide, Steve Georganas; our Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Tom Koutsantonis; and Andrea Michaels, our Minister for Small and Family Business. We were also joined by the Hon. Jing Lee in the other place, as well as thousands and thousands of locals.

As soon as I got there, it did not take long for a close friend of mine, Martina Simos, who was there covering the event for The Greek Herald, to thrust a plate of baklava into my hand, which I enjoyed straight away. I think that is one of the powers of food and community.

My late stepdad, Patrick, was an incredible cook, particularly of Greek food, and his Greek mezze recipe book is probably one of my most prized possessions. When you get to the power of food and memories, it really brings back some of those beautiful childhood memories that you have. I want to thank them for the power of food, community and culture that we were able to experience on the night.

This festival would not have happened without the most incredible team of volunteers and I want to thank them in parliament today. Con Dalas, the President of St Anthony's Community, is just the most beautiful person. He has the most beautiful spirit. Thank you so much, Con. I want to thank Peter Bouras, Evan Kostopoulos, Stephen Warner and Costa Koutsonas, who literally worked day and night to put on this festival, so a huge shoutout to Costa. I also want to thank Elias and George Demourtzidis, Elena Asikas, Demetri Aritzis, Lambros Drouganis, the St Anthony's Youth Group and so many more. There are probably too many to mention.

I want to mention as well the festival's main sponsors who helped put on the incredible event: Cerbis Ceramics, ABS Auto Salisbury, F&E Rocca, Richmond Co, Syberax, Guardian Insurance, Trio Group Australia, and, of course, the Malinauskas government was incredibly proud to support this wonderful event as well. I am sure there were probably a few sore heads in the morning and probably legs from all that dancing as well. I can say a huge congratulations and I really cannot wait for next year's festival.

The SPEAKER: If you cannot make it to Greece for your 40^th, maybe the Star of Greece in the electorate of Mawson.

Ms HOOD: I would be happy with that.

The SPEAKER: If you look out the front, it looks like you are in Santorini and if you look out the back, it looks like you are in Crete with the rolling hills and the vineyards. Speaking of vineyards and wonderful wineries, the equal second-best wine region in the state, Barossa, I welcome the member for Schubert.