Chinese Lunar New Year

The Hon. J.S. LEE (16:19): It is with great honour today that I rise to speak about the many celebrations of the Lunar New Year in South Australia. This year is the Year of the Fire Monkey—let's hope we do not need to set this chamber on fire to actually have some robust debate. The first day was Monday, 8 February, of this week, which coincides with the start of our parliament sitting week. May I take this opportunity to wish everyone here a very happy new year. Of course, the Hon. Tung Ngo and I are celebrating the Lunar New Year, so I wish him and his family a great year ahead.

In the good spirit of the season, let's get ready for some monkey magic for 2016. The monkey is a highly intelligent, witty and resourceful animal, so just watch out for all those cheeky monkeys coming out from everywhere! The Lunar New Year is one of the most important festivals for China and across Asia and for the many Asian communities living around the world. In South Australia, according to the 2011 census data, over 37,000 people were recorded to have Chinese ancestry and about 15,000 with Vietnamese ancestry. No doubt these numbers would have increased since 2011.

In addition, we also have thousands of international students from Asia, more than 10,000 from China alone. This demonstrates the strong connection we have with Asia and how we truly embrace the Asian cultures. The Chinese and Vietnamese communities are the two largest communities celebrating the Lunar New Year in South Australia. Therefore, it is no surprise that many organisations have put in enormous energy and resources to organise events over the 15 days of the Lunar New Year period.

Due to the vibrant nature of our multicultural society, the Chinese, Vietnamese and Asian communities in South Australia are stretching the festivities over a seven-week period, with the first Lunar New Year event starting as early as 23 January, up to the final event on 1 March 2016. So, with two weeks of parliament sitting as well as so many Lunar New Year events, it is keeping me pretty busy. I wish to take this opportunity to thank all of the community leaders and organisations who have invited me to be a part of their celebrations. I wish to put on the record my deepest gratitude to the Chinese, Vietnamese and other Asian associations for preserving their wonderful cultures and sharing the Lunar New Year traditions with the South Australian community.

I would like to acknowledge and convey my sincere thanks to the following: the Vietnamese Farmers Association of South Australia, the Malaysia Club of South Australia, the China Business Network of South Australia, the Commonwealth Bank, the Australia China Friendship and Development Association, the South Australian Zhu-Lin Buddhist Association. I had an interesting conversation with the chief abbot, Jiewen Shi, on the new year's eve of the new year. He was asking me about parliament sitting and was very interested to know what politicians actually do. I explained to him about the type of debate and legislative framework, etc., happening in parliament. He then asked me whether I will speak about the Chinese New Year and about the community and I said I would do so, and I am doing it right now.

I also spent the first day of the Chinese New Year at the Quan Am Temple, the Vietnamese temple. Then, SAMEAC had the Premier's reception yesterday. The Chinatown association organised a big dinner and the Hon. John Dawkins; the Hon. Gerry Kandelaars; minister Zoe Bettison; Mr Gardner, the member for Morialta; Rachel Sanderson, the member for Adelaide; Vincent Tarzia, the member for Hartley; and David Pisoni, the member for Unley, were also there, so it was a really big night.

I would like to continue my acknowledgement of the ANZ Bank, the Vietnamese Community in Australia—SA Division, the Overseas Chinese Association of South Australia, the Teo Chew Association of South Australia, Chinese Welfare Services of South Australia, the Australian Chinese Medical Association of South Australia (I think the Hon. Stephen Wade is going to that dinner), the Hong Kong Grocery Centre, the Australia China Friendship Society of South Australia, the Hong Kong ABA and the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office. All these events just keep going and going, and I want to place on the record my thanks to all the associations for their outstanding contributions, which enrich South Australia as an exciting multicultural state.

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