Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to congratulate the Chinese Youth League of Australia, which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary at a gala dinner in Sydney on 5 July that I was fortunate to attend. The Chinese Youth League is a not-for-profit organisation with a simple but effective mission—to promote friendship between Australia and China and to do this by improving understanding of Chinese culture and heritage in Australia. It achieves this through a number of important cultural, sporting and welfare programs and activities, including: Cantonese opera, with a number of concerts, training activities, festivals and charity performances; cultural dance—the Chinese Youth League won third prize in the world dance section of the Sydney Eisteddfod recently; lion and dragon dance; Wushu, Chinese martial arts; and, of course, dragon boat racing.

The Chinese Youth League of Australia's dragon boat team are the Australian national champions and are about to head off to Italy for the world championships. Isn't it wonderful to see a group of young Australians wearing the green and gold competing in a non-traditional Australian sport at the world championships in Italy? We wish them all the best.

The organisation also runs tours of China to immerse young people in Chinese culture and history. They are about strengthening Australia's greatest asset—our diversity. I congratulate Patricia Quah, the president of the organisation, and her board for their wonderful work.

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