Multiculturalism

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (15:37): I recently had the pleasure of travelling to Virginia for a celebration commemorating the 75^th anniversary of the establishment of the Hoa Hao Buddhist congregation. This is the first time that I have been invited to this particular event and, indeed, to any event within the Vietnamese community, so it was a real pleasure and privilege to get to know some new people, and I could not imagine being given a warmer welcome into that community.

I will admit that most of the proceedings were a little bit beyond me, mostly because I do not speak a word of Vietnamese, although it is definitely now on my to-do list to learn to do so, but with some help from the Hon. Mr Tung Ngo, as well as other members of the community, I managed to get by and learn some new things about the Vietnamese culture as well as Buddhism and hopefully make some new friends.

As I am sure many members would be aware, Buddhism is founded on ideals of self-awareness, self-improvement and gratitude, and I was certainly very grateful to be so warmly welcomed. Members will no doubt be aware that I am a strong advocate for the benefits of multiculturalism and am also a proud ambassador for Welcome to Australia, a community organisation seeking honesty and compassion in the often dehumanised asylum seeker and refugee debates.

It may seem a little odd to draw one simple community event into a wider debate such as this, but I think that now perhaps more than has been necessary in quite a long time it is important for all Australians to remind ourselves of the many benefits of multiculturalism and the importance of freedom of belief.

At a time when the federal government is placing more importance on funding chaplains in schools rather than secular counsellors and at a time when discussions about those who are seeking asylum in Australia or indeed those who have been lucky enough to find a new home here are often fed by fearmongering and untruth, it is important to fight for diversity and freedom.

I myself come from boat people as I suspect more than a few of us here in this parliament do. My biological father came over from England on a boat and that is how he met my mother. Were it not for this coincidence, I may not have had the opportunity to call myself Australian today. This is one of the many reasons that I am always mindful never to judge anyone on how they got here, but there is far more evidence to support the importance of multiculturalism than that little anecdote.

According to the Refugee Council of Australia, 65 per cent of our current enterprises are comprised of refugees from non-English-speaking backgrounds, compared with 35 per cent from English-speaking backgrounds. A good illustration of this entrepreneurial characteristic that refugee arrivals bring is also the Business Review Weekly's annual Rich 200 list. It reveals that five of Australia's eight billionaires were people whose parents migrated to this country as refugees, so they are hardly the dole bludgers that some people would have you believe they are.

Of course, diversity is not only important for our nation's purse but for its mind. Diversity opens us up to new ideas and experiences and calls on us to learn from each other and use the best of those learnings to build whatever we imagine to be a better society. I am a big believer in freedom of belief, religious or otherwise, and perhaps an even bigger believer in healthy debate, and I believe that many of the discussions that we as a society are currently having on these issues are far from healthy. This is because often while people are arguing about people jumping an imaginary queue or whether it is better to grow here or fly here, we are missing many opportunities to benefit from our different experiences and our shared humanity.

I would like to again thank the members of the Vietnamese Buddhist community for inviting me to their important event and, because it is an excellent example of peaceful multiculturalism, I hope to share this event with them again in the near future and I hope that we can all work together to build an Australia that we can all be proud of.