Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to talk about the Cypriot Wine Festival that I attended on Saturday night. It is the annual Cyprus wine festival that is conducted by the Cypriot community of Melbourne, Victoria. This particular festival was the 20th anniversary. Its aim is to promote Cypriot food and wine to the broader community, including Cypriot culture.

The motto of the wine festival, which you are all very familiar with now, is that if you drink wine, you will have long and good health, inserting the other platitude: excellence in moderation is very important if you want a long life and good health.

Cypriots are very proud of their winemaking history. They are also proud of the wonderful food that is always on offer when I and many other guests attend these functions.

The Cypriot Wine Festival was very well attended on Saturday night. There was a cross-group of first-generation Australians of Cypriot background with their grandparents and their grandchildren. The beauty of it being at the South Wharf for the first time meant that it was available for a greater audience to participate in.

I would like to congratulate the Cypriot community of Victoria—Melbourne, Victoria, in particular—its president James Wood, and the many hundreds of volunteers that make this wonderful event possible.

See this speech in context