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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-11-01 Daily Xml
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Ramsay Electorate

The Hon. Z.L. BETTISON (Ramsay—Minister for Tourism, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (15:22): I was recently honoured to attend two milestone events with our Italian community, celebrating the 50th anniversaries of both the Molinara Cultural and Community Club and La Festa di San Giuseppe Association. The Festa di San Giuseppe Association was founded in 1972 by a group of Italian migrants to provide a place for the growing Italian community in Salisbury and also to celebrate their devotion to St Joseph and to have the opportunity to come together to uphold their cultural and faith-based traditions.

This association has played a very active role in the Salisbury community. The Feast of St Joseph, as it is known, is the principal feast day of St Joseph, husband of the Virgin Mary, and is usually celebrated on 19 March. This feast day is celebrated all over Italy, but especially in Sicily, where St Joseph is regarded by many as the patron saint. The association is the organising committee for their annual festa that has taken place in Salisbury every March for the past 50 years.

The association also carries out various fundraising activities throughout the year, such as quiz nights and dinner dances for Christmas Day and Father's Day. They also support the operations of the St Joseph Italian Community Centre in Paralowie.

I particularly want to thank Rocco Carpentieri, the president of the association, and his team for their efforts to organise the celebration held on 22 October. I also want to thank the founders of the association—Domenico Reitano, Gerry Rossi and Tina Schultze—and the past and current members for their outstanding commitment and contribution. I would also like to acknowledge Brett Mattiske from Mattiske Funerals and Dino Mussolino from the Hi-Tech Group for their generous sponsorship and support of the event.

The event was attended by Tony Zappia, member for Makin; Adriano Stendardo, the Consul of Italy in South Australia; of course, our mayor, Mayor Gillian Aldridge from the City of Salisbury; the Deputy Mayor of the City of Salisbury Chad Buchanan; Father Shibu; Sister Jessika; and Sister Elda.

We also launched a very special book commemorating the 50 years of the association. It talked about the history and the devotion to culture and traditions, but it also talked about the stories of migration and the success that people have made from coming to South Australia.

On Sunday 30 October, I was privileged to attend the 50th anniversary of the Molinara Cultural and Community Club. Molinara is a municipality in the province of Benevento in the southern Italian region of Campania, about 80 kilometres north-east of Naples. The club was established on 17 March 1972 by a group of migrants from Molinara, providing a place where their families could meet and spend time together. In fact, Premier Don Dunstan, a former Labor Premier, officially opened the club on 3 July.

The club is based at Lyons Road, Windsor Gardens, and hosts lots of social activities and has about 400 members. The club's 50th anniversary was scheduled to take place last year but, like many others, was deferred due to COVID. Speaking at the event was the founder and president, Cavalleri Joe Marcus Baldino, and I also acknowledge his brother, John Baldino, who continues the presidency.

It was a very emotional day on Sunday as people recalled the family events that were often hosted at the centre. There would be an engagement party or a christening. I went there for a friend's 21st about 25 years ago. It is a well-used club by many, many people. It is great to see how strong the club still is. Really, it is strong because of the many volunteers who come out. We were served some fantastic homemade pasta, some of the best you could try. It was a really special day.

When we think about our Italian community, we think of those not just here in our Adelaide metropolitan area but the Italian communities also in the Riverland, Port Pirie and Whyalla areas. The 2021 census told us there were 16,000 people who were born in Italy who are living in South Australia. However, more than 103,000 people have Italian ancestry. So our Italian ancestry community is probably one of the largest of our multicultural communities in South Australia. I thank them for choosing South Australia for their life here.

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