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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-03-20 Daily Xml
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Motions

Harmony Week

Mr BATTY (Bragg) (10:51): I move:

That this house—

(a) notes 18 to 24 March is Harmony Week; and

(b) acknowledges the range of valuable activities undertaken in our community under the theme of 'everyone belongs'.

This is an important opportunity for this house to acknowledge Harmony Week, a week of celebration that recognises our diversity and brings together Australians of all different backgrounds. I think Australia and South Australia are strengthened by our cultural diversity. It is remarkable, really, the way that we, as a people, come together and make everyone feel welcome, regardless of their background. We live and breathe this theme of Harmony Week—'everyone belongs'—every day.

Immigration and new citizens are a very big part of who we are as a nation. Nearly 30 per cent of our population was born overseas and nearly one in two Australians have a parent born overseas. South Australia is home to people from 200 countries speaking 180 languages and practising 90 different faiths. We are very much a state and a nation of migrants, which is why Harmony Week and other events like it are so important.

Harmony Week's mission is to celebrate our rich diversity and bring Australians of all backgrounds together. It is about respect and it is about a sense of belonging—or, as this year's theme so succinctly captures it, 'everyone belongs'. Harmony Week's origins are tied to that of Harmony Day, which itself is tied to the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. That is a day that was introduced after the horrific and racially motivated Sharpeville massacre which took place in South Africa on 21 March 1960. It was a day that was introduced to try to build a world where something like that would never again be possible or seen.

With this laudable goal of social harmony and celebrating diversity at its core, Harmony Day was introduced in 1999 to celebrate the rare achievement of Australian multiculturalism. Since its introduction 25 years ago, Harmony Day has been a major success, with over 80,000 events being held by schools, community groups, churches, businesses and local, state and federal government agencies. It is for this reason that, in 2019, on the 20th anniversary of Harmony Day, the event was expanded into the Harmony Week that we now know today and that we are seeking to celebrate through this motion.

Celebrations are registered right across the country. They are recognisable by their signature vibrant orange colour, often worn on ribbons and traditionally symbolic of peace and social diversity. Anyone can register an event, which often ranges widely from morning teas to lessons at school to sports matches and everything in between. There is a plethora of event planning and promotional kits on the Harmony Week website, and I highly encourage and recommend that everyone, if they can, attend an event of some sort this week.

A number of events are taking place in my own local community. The City of Burnside is holding a Harmony Week concert this Friday at the Regal Theatre. Tomorrow at the Glenunga Hub the Pepper Street Arts Centre will also be holding a Harmony Week celebration. I had the pleasure of attending a City of Burnside Harmony Week celebration event last year, which featured traditional Chinese, Indian, Japanese and Iranian cultural performances by very many talented local artists.

The United Nations Association of Australia (SA) is also holding an event this weekend. They are collaborating with St Peter's Cathedral and Andrew Baines this Saturday to celebrate Harmony Day through music, and promising a multicultural upbeat choir with well-known songs, so I would encourage families seeking to celebrate Harmony Day to head along to that on the weekend. I take this opportunity to commend my constituent Lidia Moretti, the President of the United Nations Association of Australia (SA), recognising the remarkable job she has done in organising this event on the weekend but also what she does all year round in that very important role in our local community.

I would encourage people to try to go along to one or more of the Harmony Week events. Those are just a couple of examples of events taking place right across the state and country, examples of events that take place not just in Harmony Week but throughout the year celebrating multiculturalism in our society, including in my electorate where we have a number of Chinese cultural events that I have been lucky enough to attend over the past couple of months celebrating Lunar New Year.

I think I must have been to nearly 100 Lunar New Year events over the past couple of months. It is an important celebration for my local community. Indeed, one in 10 of my constituents speak Mandarin or Cantonese at home and it has been a genuine pleasure being able to engage with that community over the past couple of years.

I had the pleasure of visiting China last year as part of the 13th annual Australia China Youth Dialogue in Chengdu. I also visited Beijing and Shanghai, which was a really good opportunity to learn more about Chinese culture and trade opportunities for South Australia with China, but also to learn about the important contribution that Chinese Australians have made to our story and to our state. It was also a great opportunity to eat some delicious hotpot in Chengdu and, importantly, visit the pandas in Chengdu. We are very pleased pandas will be sticking around in Adelaide a bit longer.

I take this opportunity again to wish all of those celebrating Lunar New Year in my local community and beyond a very happy Year of the Dragon, and commend all those organisations that have done a lot of work organising local Lunar New Year events in my community, particularly the City of Burnside and the Overseas Chinese Association of South Australia for their celebration at the Burnside Ballroom.

I have also attended a number of Indian community events over the past little while. The Indian community represents about one in every 20 people in my electorate; it is one of the fastest-growing communities in my electorate. It was wonderful to experience all of their culture at a number of Diwali celebrations late last year. The Festival of Lights celebrates goodness over evil and light over darkness and was celebrated right across the world but in particular in my local community.

Whether it is our Indian community, our Chinese community, our Italian, Greek or Vietnamese community, our local area is made up of immigrants from all around the globe. I said in my maiden speech that I want to try to foster an environment where we have a sense of belonging and acceptance amongst these diverse groups of Australians. To this end, I was really pleased late last year to be able to jointly host with the former member for Dunstan a new citizens' event here at Parliament House where we welcomed new Australians from our two electorates in the eastern suburbs over the past year. We met families like that of Heshan Welgolle, who was just so proud to live in this beautiful country of ours. It was a genuinely heartwarming night.

I think one of the genuine privileges of this job is being able to welcome new citizens to Australia and South Australia. The day someone becomes a new citizen is no doubt a very important and special day for that person, but I think it is also a really important, special day in the story of Australia and for our local community, because we are all the beneficiaries of our multicultural story, and we are all the beneficiaries of what is being brought into our state and local community.

That is really what Harmony Week is all about: enjoying and celebrating the cultural experiences which can be found right here in South Australia. Whoever you are, wherever you come from, whatever you believe, everyone belongs here in South Australia. That is why I am a very proud supporter of Harmony Week, and I am very pleased to move this motion.

Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (11:01): I rise in support of this motion and thank the member for Bragg for bringing it to this place. My family gets very excited in the lead-up to Harmony Week. Just on the weekend, my children—Audrey and Ned—and I were madly running around the local shops to try to find any version of clothing in the colour orange in preparation for Prospect Primary's Harmony Parade this coming Monday. We did not have any luck at Target. Unfortunately, all the orange in my children's sizes had sold out, but thank you to Best and Less at Sefton Park for having some leftover orange in my children's sizes. We were able to deck them out for this Monday's parade.

During Harmony Week we recognise and celebrate the immense cultural and linguistic diversity of our community. Our shared Australian values of respect, equality and freedom are what make our state such a harmonious and culturally aware place to call home. In the middle of Harmony Week on 21 March, the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is commemorated. This reminds us that we each have a role to play in combating racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia, not just this week but every single day. I congratulate the many schools, workplaces and community organisations for participating in Harmony Week events and activities across our state.

South Australia is proud to have its first intercultural city in the City of Salisbury. As a refugee welcome zone, the City of Salisbury will be hosting a Harmony Week event to welcome the existing and emerging communities that call Salisbury home. Here in Adelaide, the United Nations Association of Australia (SA) will be holding a celebration on 23 March at St Peter's Cathedral. It will be a vibrant display of the culture, music and costumes to champion the theme 'everyone belongs'.

On Tuesday next week, I will have the great honour of attending my children's school and both of their classes to teach the children about my own heritage. I am very proud to have come from Scottish heritage and will be undertaking a Harmony Day activity where children get to design their very own Scottish tartan. As a member of the Naracoorte Highland Pipe Band, this is heritage that I am very, very proud of. The Hoods made up a third of the Naracoorte Highland Pipe Band. My grandfather Lindsay, my father Robin Hood, my brothers Ben Hood and Toby Hood and myself were all very proud members of the Naracoorte Highland Pipe Band as both bagpipers and snare drummers, and I was a tenor drummer.

It is a great opportunity to reflect on being able to throw on our tartan and play the music of our heritage. One of my very first experiences of Adelaide High was going up to the state championships to compete. I competed in my category, in the tenor drum and bass category. I am very proud to have actually come second. What I do not tell people is that there were only two competitors in the competition, but I am still very proud to have come second in that category.

I am very much looking forward to sitting down with the kids at Prospect Primary, designing our own Scottish tartan and celebrating that heritage, along with all the other cultures that we have in my local community: Indian, Chinese, Greek, and also Italian along with the many others.

The Malinauskas Labor government acknowledges and deeply appreciates the diverse range of experiences, skill sets and knowledge of our multicultural communities. They are truly one of our state's greatest assets. That is why upon coming into government we committed an additional $16 million over four years to the multicultural affairs budget. We are embedding that 'everyone belongs' sentiment, having developed the very first South Australian Multicultural Charter, which provides key guideline principles to promote a harmonious and inclusive community.

Our government is progressing the charter from a document to a way of doing business through our pilot Multicultural South Australia Ambassador Program. The ambassador pilot program is being led by a diverse group of respected South Australian organisations such as the RAA, Cancer Council SA, Mitsubishi Motors SA, City of West Torrens and PKF. These organisations are demonstrating how they are embedding the principles of cultural awareness and inclusivity in their workforce, business practices and service delivery. This will ultimately lead to increased cultural and linguistic inclusion in the way business is done in our state.

Whether it is at your local footy match, in your workplace or sitting around the dinner table, we all have a role to play in cultural awareness and calling out racial discrimination. The message of respect and belonging should go well beyond this weeklong celebration and be lived by each of us every day. I wish everyone a happy Harmony Week, and commend this motion to the house.

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (11:06): I rise to commend the motion, and commend the member for Bragg for bringing it to the house, and join with those who have spoken already in support of the motion. It is important that the house recognises Harmony Week, and that is an occasion in turn to recognise the great achievements that are really at the core of what we are proud of in South Australia and, indeed, in Australia as a nation. I think it is particularly true to say that in South Australia we can be very proud that at the core of our strength as a state has been our capacity to welcome and to benefit from the range of different migrants over the entire journey.

While there remains challenge and complexity in terms of the postcolonial history, and a better and more complete understanding of our Indigenous South Australians, those Aboriginal South Australians who are descended from tens of thousands of years of presence in this place, I hope that Harmony Day and our reflection on our capacity as a state to draw strength from our diversity is something that we have very much at the front of our mind, and it is not to be taken for granted.

This matter of the welcome and support for, and then in turn benefitting particularly from those who have come to our country, and more particularly to our state over recent generations, is a matter that at times has been the subject of controversy, and it is well that we recognise the capacity to speak up for what makes us strong.

I do not do this so terribly often but on this topic I stand here the proud son of a father who spoke throughout his public life always about the central importance of our multicultural heritage. So while we take that for granted, as a kid I remember it was a pretty common event back in the days of the landline, that I would pick up the phone and have heavy breathing on the other end of the line. There was a moment in the mid-eighties, when there were people in public life speaking up on multicultural matters, that someone's shed got burnt down. Tragically, there was the event of someone in public life being attacked. I remember saying, with the spirit of youth to a father who was at some distance, 'Look, don't worry Dad, they haven't burnt the shed down.'

So it is something that I got to take for granted growing up. I am particularly close in terms of that childhood experience to our Italian communities. I have many uncles in the Italian community, as I was brought up to address them with affection, none more than Mick Gallomarino and those wonderful people of the community of St George. In amongst those migrants, particularly coming from Vietnam post war, is, of course, our former Governor the Hon. Hieu Van Le. He and Lan remember well the welcome that they received on arrival in the Northern Territory but then more particularly as they made their way to South Australia.

So there is a lot to be proud about, there is a lot to continue to speak up for, and just in a hard-headed, state development way, there is a lot to be clear-eyed about in terms of how we plan the way in which we engage with both those who are here and, as the member for Bragg in particular has reflected upon, those communities that are part of our region and around the globe.

In terms of the way that we have addressed these matters by legislation in this place, the task of the parliament, I think it is important to reflect on the work of the Marshall Liberal government in this respect. The South Australian Multicultural Act 2021 is a key document, the work of the previous government, because it set out an articulation for the next generation, including the South Australian Multicultural Charter. I am very pleased that the incoming government, the minister, has carried that forward and we see the South Australian Multicultural Charter articulating our values in terms of how we see multicultural South Australia.

Of course, the charter acknowledges Aboriginal peoples as the traditional owners and occupants of the land of South Australia and that is central very much to the charter. It further recognises the achievements and challenges of the generations who came before us, who together with us are working towards shaping South Australia's identity, and it is very much about now and into the future. So I salute the work of the Marshall Liberal government in terms of both the act and the charter. It is a proud legacy of the former member for Dunstan, who I know at every occasion reminded us that this is an essential part of the core strength of what we define ourselves to be as South Australians.

If I permit myself one further personal reflection—I do this from time to time at citizenship ceremonies—I am particularly proud to stand alongside my wife, Maria, who was born and raised in Sweden. She came over here with me and she has taken Australian citizenship. She has gone the journey and she has done that as an adult. Our children very much share the heritage immediately of both Sweden and Australia, as well as, of course, those aspects of my multicultural background, albeit Cornish and German, not so rare in this place. So I salute Maria.

If there is a chance to make one further reflection, I know I did rather enthusiastically in the last sitting week on the day of the announcement of Electric Fields as Australia's representative at the upcoming Eurovision contest. That will be a celebration and they will do Australia proud. I have said to everybody: do yourself a favour and at least watch it if you cannot get yourself to Malmo on 11 May.

The song that they will sing, the song that Zaachariaha Fielding will sing, One Milkali, is a work of art. That is exercise of creative genius. There is a very serious expression there: one blood, we are united and we can work towards ever more unity and togetherness. If there is a serious message associated with the theme of this year's Harmony Day, 'Everyone belongs', I think there is nothing more appropriate than the theme of Electric Fields' song, One Milkali. I commend the motion and look forward to opportunities to continue to work together in an area that is so much at the core of South Australia's strength.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (11:17): I rise in support of this motion and thank the member for Bragg for bringing it to the chamber. Harmony Week is a celebration that recognises our diversity and brings together Australians from all different backgrounds. We are diverse by our cultures, we are diverse by our faith, we are diverse by our gender, we are diverse by our sexuality. Even within the Anglo-Australian community there is diversity as well, let alone the diversity from people who have actually come from other nations to this country, and I will get to our First Nations people in a moment.

The focus of Harmony Week is on reflecting and also celebrating inclusion, respect and a sense of belonging for everybody. I think that last bit is so important, that for everybody who is here in this country—whether you are in the cities or the suburbs or the country areas; it does not matter where you live—there should be a sense of belonging.

Whether, like myself, you are in some way celebrating Lent or you are celebrating Ramadan or you are soon to celebrate the Passover, irrespective of our faith we should all respect our differences and see them for what they are. They are the strengths of our country. That also includes people of no religious faith. We should also respect people who have no religious faith. We need to respect all people.

When I was looking at some of the websites to see what people are saying about Harmony Week, these are some of the things that I read. It is interesting that, despite some of our imperfections as a nation, most people see us as a very successful multicultural nation, which I believe we are. These are some of the quotes from the websites:

Australia is one of the world's most successful multicultural countries and our cultural diversity is at the heart of who we are.

We also acknowledge that:

Over half of Australians were born overseas, or have at least one parent who was born overseas.

I am one of those; not only my parents but I also was born overseas. They go on to say:

That's why it's so important that we celebrate our country's diversity through Harmony Week.

It is about inclusion, respect and belonging for all Australians from the traditional First Nations people until today.

One thing we often do not wish to acknowledge sometimes—and I do not know why—is that this country, since people have roamed in this country, has been a multicultural nation; we have been a diverse nation. Going back 60,000 years, we have been a multicultural nation. Then we added some Europeans to our nation with the First Fleet and we have added a lot of other people from other nations as well since that time. But the reality is, even though it is more recent in government policies for the last 50 years, we have been a multicultural society going back 60,000 years.

I think it is important to say that, because we also need to understand and respect the differences in our First Nations people as well. They are not just one person, just like the Italians are not one person, they have a whole range of different views and beliefs, etc., so we need to respect that. Another comment is:

And celebrating that no matter where you come from, we're united by the Australian values of freedom, respect, fairness, democracy and equal opportunity.

They are important values. I think in the main we do have that in this country. We do have some imperfections from time to time, but in the main we do have that. I would also like to quote some of the things our federal Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs has said recently:

[the] week…reflects the fact that Australian society is made up of many parts—each adding to the richness of our diverse and wonderfully multicultural nation.

He goes on to reinforce, which I am glad he has done:

Of course, we share our vibrant land with the world's oldest continuing culture. Our First Nations people have cared for country for more than 60,000 years, and contribute so much to our sense of national identity.

We can be diverse, we can be multicultural, a whole range of differences, but we can still have a strong sense of national identity.

I think this is where we do it better than a lot of other countries, we do it better than the USA and some other countries as well. We do it much better. We have had waves of migration to this country. Like I said, I am a migrant to this country as well. Yes, initially, there is always some friction in those waves of migration, but over time we integrate. We learn from each other and we develop a truly multicultural nation.

Before the Italians, it was people from Eastern Europe, post World War II. We have had people from Asia during the seventies and eighties. Yes, initially there was some friction but now we look at each other, we look around and we just think we are all Australians. Certainly, the children of people who have migrated here see themselves as Australians. Sometimes their accent is more Australian than Anglo-Australians.

Apart from all those good things I have just talked about, it is important that we also need to recognise and acknowledge that for many Australians this year it is a difficult time to celebrate Harmony Week due to the ongoing conflicts overseas that have touched the lives of many within our community. At this point in time, while we quite rightly celebrate our diversity and all the good things that happen in this country, there are people in Australia who have family or friends in the middle of conflicts overseas—and some devastating conflicts at that.

It is at this time that it is crucial we remember what our shared values are: respect, unity and compassion, that underpin our multicultural nation and reflect on how these principles can guide us towards peace and understanding.

What we say in this place, what other community leaders say and what people in business say is important—it is important. We cannot, by our words, change what happens overseas and which affects the people who live in this country who have family and friends overseas in these conflict areas—the obvious one at the moment being the conflict in Israel and Palestine—but what we say here can help with integration, can help with that sense of belonging, which is a theme of Harmony Week. It is about making sure we all belong. What we say will give those people born overseas that sense of belonging. In my view, a lot of our political leaders have, in this regard, failed that test in the sense that what we have said about this conflict has not actually meant, for a lot of people, that they feel like they belong to this country.

Kosmos Samaras, who works as a researcher for RedBridge, has just recently published some research he has done with the Muslim community in Australia in different states, and he has found that a lot of Muslim people feel abandoned by our governments—and I say governments because it is not just governments at the federal level but at the state level as well. They feel abandoned by them. They do not feel a sense of belonging not because of what they have said but what they have not said.

Silence on this issue from some of our political leaders has been as damaging as some of the inappropriate comments made by others because we have not actually reached out to make sure that we understand and express our compassion for the grief and pain they are feeling in this community, our community, about their brothers and sisters in Palestine and Israel. I say Palestine and Israel because there is quite a bit of grief amongst our Jewish community for what happened in Israel on 7 October.

I think in some ways, we have dealt with the 7 October matter better than we have dealt with the post 7 October matter. Quite rightly, our leaders made sure that people of Jewish background felt that Australia could be their home, and that was appropriate. Sadly, I do not believe that has extended to our Muslim community and they do feel like they have been shunned, they do feel like they have been abandoned. Interestingly, Mr Samaras' research shows that that feeling is even stronger amongst women than men. Muslim women and girls feel this isolation, if you like, more so, and that, in some sense, makes sense. But I think it is important that we understand that.

We have been a successful migrant country but I think we also need to make sure that when conflicts do occur overseas, it is not a case of taking sides, it is making sure that we stand on the side of justice, irrespective of who the people are.

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (11:27): I rise to support this motion by the member for Bragg:

That this house—

(a) notes 18 to 24 March is Harmony Week; and

(b) acknowledges the range of valuable activities undertaken in our community under the theme of 'everyone belongs'.

This happens as 21 March, which happens to be my eldest son's birthday—I better remember that—tomorrow, is Australia's Harmony Day, which celebrates the country's cultural diversity and it coincides with the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and that is vitally important.

If it was not for the many, many hundreds of thousands, into the millions, of migrants that have come to this country since the late 1700s, 1800s, we would not be the multicultural country we are. It is just amazing what all these cultural groups add to the diversity of this country alongside the First Nations people.

Coming from a family of early migrants from 1840, coming out from England, to see the amount of diversity that is through our community now is fantastic, and none more so than in the seat of Hammond where, essentially, many hundreds of jobs, whether they be in retail, the service sector or food processing, have been taken up just in my electorate. We would not do our area or our state justice without this vital contribution from these people who are working there and whose families are fortunate enough to come and reside in the area to support these people as well.

It has been going on for a long, long time—many decades now. We have many jobs in the agriculture sector, whether it is in the meat industry, processing meat for Thomas Foods, processing for Big River Pork. I note that Thomas Foods are on the big rebuild of their staff. They have built the beef plant and are waiting on the lamb plant to be built, and they have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on building that new plant from that tragedy that happened all those years ago at the start of 2018 with the fire.

We just would not have the work completed if we did not have the many migrants that came out. We have seen waves of different migrants come through, whether they be Afghans; whether they be the Chinese, and especially the Chinese at the time, when there was Kevin Excell and his bike shop who when he sold out of bikes had to just keep ordering them in until the migrant workers steadily progressed through to getting drivers licences and driving cars locally; or whether they be among the many other community groups, such as Filipino, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Sudanese, Africans, a whole range. There are dozens of cultural groups in my area.

It is not just in that food processing area as far as meat is concerned but in the horticulture business. I salute the Pacific Islanders that have come out in recent times. I note that during COVID we were trying to get 100 out from the Pacific Islands, but as they got to the plane they found that 12 had COVID and so had to be left home, but we got the others here, and we sponsored their quarantine accommodation, and they came in and helped with many industries.

I look at companies that I did look after in my electorate but still hold dear: Parilla potatoes or Zerella Fresh, who have upgraded their plant up there at Parilla, with many tens of millions of dollars. It is mainly potato packing but they do carrots and onions as well. They have a lot of overseas people working for them. I know there are a lot of people from Papua New Guinea there. As a lot of groups in the employment sector have found—and I know Darren Thomas from Thomas Foods has said to me, 'I'm not a housing person, I'm a food processor.' But they are all learning that they have to get involved in the housing to make sure that people can live locally and contribute locally.

I note that Zerella Fresh have been building their own houses in Pinnaroo and Lameroo, and that is enriching those areas out in the Mallee so that they can have those workers locally. I know that Thomas Foods have a dedicated staff member on this role of making sure that the appropriate housing is put together so that many hundreds of migrants that they need to service their facilities can live comfortably in the Murray Bridge region. They are facilitating that work, notwithstanding that their lamb slaughterhouse is still up at Lobethal.

Other groups that are in the area include Costa mushrooms, who recently spent $90 million in doubling their facility. There are a lot of recent migrants who work there, and some of them live outside the area; well, that is fine. They are contributing to this great state. Ingham's chicken enterprise several years ago spent $50 million on a feed complex, and every chicken shed that gets built is probably well north of $1 million now. They are over 100 metres long. There is a great contribution from these chicken sheds that are built locally, whether close to Murray Bridge or Monarto or out towards Karoonda.

They have a hatchery not far from my place at Coomandook. I am referring to the valuable contribution of people in these areas, but it is not just these areas of work that contribute to society but the culture these people bring in: the restaurants, the colour and the vibrancy. It is magnificent because it gets you away from the steak and chips, even if that is your staple diet.

A lot of people come into my office because we are the main area for justice of the peace signing and many people come in for various things. I will never forget a bloke coming in with his partner and I think one or two kids. He looked very solemn as we did the justice of the peace service for him. I did all that and said, 'There you go.' He said, 'How much?' I said, 'No, it's free mate. Don't worry about it.' His face lit up. It is so good to have them in the area.

I want to acknowledge the Murraylands Multicultural Network. On Sunday I will be there, and I acknowledge that the minister will be there as well, for a great day of performances and exhibitions by the many multicultural groups across the Murraylands and elsewhere in South Australia. It is always a great day.

I am sure my multicultural friends, as they did last year, will come and attempt to drag myself and the mayor up to dance with them. It may be no surprise that I did get up and dance. The mayor refused to. I said in his ear, 'If you get asked this time, you better get up.' It will be a great day on Sunday, and it is so great as a community to embrace all nationalities and migrants who in the past have contributed so much to the great network of our community and our state and will continue to do so well into the future.

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (11:36): I also rise to speak on this motion and commend the member for Bragg for bringing it to the house. It is one of those times when we all get to agree in a very positive way. On the weekend I travelled up to Quorn to unveil a plaque for an Aboriginal woman who was the first woman to represent Australia nationally back in the 1950s in the Australian cricket team. That woman was Faith Thomas.

She was born in Nepabunna and at the age of three moved to Quorn. When you consider that in the 1950s an Aboriginal woman got to represent Australia, given where she was from—not just the fact that she was a woman but that she was Aboriginal—was an amazing achievement and something we wanted to recognise. Good on the Flinders Ranges Council for deciding to shine a light on this woman. She did go on to do other great things, as she was also the first Aboriginal nurse to be employed by the Public Service.

Upon arriving in Quorn at the oval to take part in this recognition, the cricket was in full flow. I walked in and straight off a Sikh gentleman came up and said, 'The Pakistan cricket team is here.' There was a competition going on that involved people from Pakistan, India, Aussies—the whole works. It was a team largely made up of people from Pakistan, mainly living in Port Augusta, who won the B-grade on that day.

It was that idea that you turn up to a community. We know that the archaeological evidence of people inhabiting the Flinders Ranges goes back 40,000 years, and here we have some of the people who have come most recently to this country to make a contribution. It struck me. That night I went to Port Augusta and took part in the Iftar dinner in Port Augusta as part of the holy month of Ramadan. Good on the Port Augusta Islamic Society. They brought together people from all religious faiths, nationalities and cultures to share food and to celebrate at the dinner. This is the living, practical example in our communities of how people do get together. People do rub along here, irrespective of some of the tensions—and more than tensions in some of the countries that people come from.

I look at my heritage. With an Irish mum and a Scottish dad of Irish descent, I was born in England and now I am an Aussie citizen. I look at my kids. My daughter's partner is from Pakistan. She recently went over to Pakistan and was warmly welcomed by the family over there. They went over for a wedding. One of my sons is now the partner of someone from a very extended Greek family, which is fantastic because the food is great. You just look at your own life and you look at your communities where people have come together.

In Whyalla, during its peak years, there were 64 nationalities, mainly from Europe but also from the Middle East and from a whole range of other countries. It continues to be a multinational community. When I am in Whyalla I often go to help the Filipinos celebrate. They always celebrate in a fantastic fashion. I am always a little bit resistant getting up on the dance floor. I am a terrible dancer, and I do not particularly share it on Facebook. Anyway, you get up and do your bit and you do your dancing. Please, no-one search for it, and I hope you do not find it.

I like to say to the Filipino community that the Aussies are still the biggest group in Whyalla, and then it is the English and then the Scots, and now it is the Filipinos. I said, 'You are going to have to get your skates on. You are going to have to get more people here. You are going to have to breed a bit more because the Indians are building up in numbers.' It is just interesting over the years to watch the waves of people come in, the different occupational categories that they fill and what they then ultimately contribute to the community.

Another very multinational community in my electorate is the community of Coober Pedy. Once again, it has people from all over the world. A lot of Europeans moved to Coober Pedy after the war to make their fortune, and that community at its peak had a population of over 3,000. It is always great to go to Coober Pedy. Now Coober Pedy actually has a Sri Lankan cricket team that is knocking off the other few cricket teams in the area. They are very good cricketers. I said they should play against the team that is mainly made up of people from Pakistan in Port Augusta and see how that turns out.

We have people from all over making a contribution. Sometimes that is a little bit dangerous. I went up to the celebration for the anniversary of the Serbian church in Coober Pedy. I thought I had no functions on this weekend. My riding instructions were to represent the Premier and the tourism minister. With no speeches, no anything, I thought I could have a very relaxing weekend. When I got there at 11 o'clock on the Saturday, the Serbs insisted that I have a few shots. They ended up being quite a few shots over the course of that day.

I turned up on the Sunday fairly bright. Once again, they started that sequence, only for someone to come over to me, who happened to be the Serbian bishop for Australia and New Zealand. He said, 'Eddie, we want you at the front table, and we want you to give a speech.' By that time, I had already had a few shots. They sat me next to the Serbian ambassador. I thought, 'This wasn't in the riding instructions.' Fortunately, I was able to provide a speech that provided a little bit of entertainment and acknowledged that, of all of the national groups in Coober Pedy, it was the Serbians that built an underground club. There are some underground churches, but they are the only ones to build an underground club, so I was able to say, 'The Serbians left the others for dead by the fact that they did go underground, very appropriately, in Coober Pedy.'

If you have not been to the Serbian church and club in Coober Pedy, I would advise that you do. The club and the church are next to each other. Both are underground, and the church, with some of the internal sculptures and the other work that has been done, is really worth going to and having a look at. All of the communities in one way or the other have embraced multiculturalism.

I need to finish off on the APY lands, and the people who have been there now for thousands upon thousands of years, and the contribution that they make to our state and the nation. Through the APY Art Centre Collective, which, contrary to some of the things that have been said, is Anangu run, it does some incredibly good work, and it is mainly as a result of the talent of the Anangu people. The artwork that is produced is of an international standard, and it is why it is being exhibited in galleries around the world. The best of the artwork of the APY lands is just absolutely outstanding, so we should be doing what we need to do to defend the vehicle that has helped that come to the fore.

I am incredibly proud of the communities that I represent, the way in which those communities rub along together. No society is perfect. Every society has its tensions, its contradictions and its differences, but when you live in this country in some ways we sometimes take it for granted. We are incredibly fortunate.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI (Unley) (11:46): I, too, stand to support this motion moved by the member for Bragg. It is very much a motion about where Australia is today. Of course, Australia was not always the multicultural country that it is. As a matter of fact, it was a very monocultural country. Statistics will tell you that about 28 per cent of Australia's population are born overseas currently, and then 20 per cent of people born in Australia claim to have one or both parents who were born overseas.

It has not really changed a lot because we are part of the New World. We are a migrant country, but it is from where those migrants come from and the dramatic shift of the source of those migrants after World War II that has substantially changed the migrant mix and added so many more cultures coming to South Australia. Before then, we still had some cultural diversity, but they were treated with hostility by those predominantly Anglo-Saxon migrants who came to the colony of Australia and settled here and started their new lives here.

One of the things that I learnt about very early when I was in the furniture trade was that furniture used to be stamped with a big black ink stamp on it: 'Made from European labour only' because of the unions' concern about how efficient the Chinese were in the furniture factories here in Australia. It was not because they were working for less; they were actually, on a very small scale, dividing labour. Instead of one cabinet-maker making the whole piece of furniture, one would specialise in making the drawers, one would specialise in making the overall carcass and another one would specialise in turning the legs. Of course, that brought in efficiencies. Unfortunately it became about marketing because of the hostility towards people who looked different and had different work practices, and people who were buying furniture wanted to see that stamp that the furniture was made from European labour only.

Then, of course, there were small groups of Italians, Greeks and Germans. They were here in small numbers before the First World War, and then a few more arriving after that before the Second World War but they were interned during those wars. Even though they themselves may have been very well established as citizens of Australia, committed to Australia, they were interned during the war because of their cultural heritage.

The Second World War finishes and we have an economic boom here in Australia and we need labour, and so we saw the relaxation of the White Australia Policy so people with European complexions, rather than simply the British complexion, were able to come to Australia. We saw waves of people coming from Italy and coming from Greece in particular, and those people settling in the newer suburbs being developed, but also the suburbs where industries were changing, where people were moving from the old inner suburbs like Unley, for example, and out to the new suburbs, out to the member for Bragg's electorate for example, or to the post-war suburbs developing in the northern and southern suburbs.

People were moving out of the inner suburbs, those who were established in those areas, and we saw large migrant communities moving into the inner western suburbs, and into suburbs around Norwood and Unley. It made a significant change to lifestyle in those areas and people started to embrace that lifestyle. I grew up in Salisbury. It was a country town when my father-in-law was born there. He is now 85. I do remember quite a large Italian community and the establishment of a place called Sam's Deli. If you are interested in the history of processed food, Australia led the world in processed food, mainly because of the heat and lack of refrigeration.

When you walked into Sam's Deli, you could actually smell the food because it was fresh food—salamis, cheese and bread. The Anglos gave it the nickname 'the smelly deli' because they were not used to smelling food unless it was being cooked. For years it was called 'the smelly deli' and it was an institution. It was really the first time that people from an Anglo background had the opportunity to try things because back then we were not the world travellers that we are now, because we were so far away.

Just imagine what it was like for those Greek and Italian migrants, and anyone who came from Europe. What did they have to deal with when they got here? First of all, they did not have English. Secondly, they were used to the metric system. They had to learn about pounds, shillings and pence for their currency. They had to convert or learn about feet and inches, pounds, ounces and stones. As an Italian migrant, my father ended up working at GMH as a toolmaker, and he was working in thousandths of inches as a toolmaker, somebody for whom the metric system was natural. It must have been like going to the moon, coming all the way to Australia, and of course when you made that trip you did not expect to return, because I think it was over a month on the boat.

I recently used the opportunity on the way to Canberra to pop into Bonegilla migrant camp, which was a big military camp before the war but after the war became a migrant camp. One in 20 Australians has a family connection to an arrival at Bonegilla. It is more or less Australia's Ellis Island. There is a museum there now.

The dominant communities that came to Australia from the late 1940s were mainly refugee type migrants, and then in the 1950s there were migrants who came here on government contracts, two-year contracts with the government. The government would pay your way to Australia and you had to make yourself available to work where the government wanted you to work; obviously, you got paid.

Those migrants had a much higher standard of what they expected from that accommodation. Because of the recession that hit at the time, people were there for much longer than they wanted to be, and because of the standard and the very Australian food—boiled meat, boiled vegetables, usually all in the same pot—there were food riots. They got so bad that it is the only time and the only place in Australia's history when the army was brought in to deal with people on its own soil.

Contracts were torn up. The government said, 'We can't give you any work. We will give you bus tickets to go wherever you want to go—Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide or whatever.' It is an amazing history. All of those people who came through Bonegilla ended up contributing enormously to this state, both culturally and economically.

Mr BATTY (Bragg) (11:57): I want to thank all members for their contributions and personal reflections on this motion, a happy occasion when we are in fierce agreement, acknowledging and celebrating Harmony Week, celebrating the success story that is South Australian multiculturalism, celebrating our migrant communities, our First Nations communities and the fact that everyone does indeed belong.

Motion carried.

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