David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On Saturday, 6 February, I hosted the annual Banks Chinese New Year Celebration at Club Central, Hurstville. More than 300 people attended this special celebration and it was wonderful to have my friend the member for Berowra there as our special guest, being the great friend of the Australian-Chinese community that he is.

There were many great performances on the day. The Sydney Musicool Ensemble sang the national anthem and performed a number of pieces of classical music. The Academy of Chinese Culture sang and performed some traditional poetry as well, and there were a number of dances from Asian Women at Work. It was a very well received event.

I would like to thank Club Central, at Hurstville, for the professionalism with which their staff hosted it. I would also like to thank special guest Deputy Consul-General Lyu, of the People's Republic of China, who had only been in Australia for two days but found the time to attend our event. I would also like to thank the many community organisations that were there on the day: CASS, BLIA, Can revive and a number of others. To all my constituents of Chinese background, I take this opportunity to wish them a great Chinese New Year for the Year of the Monkey.

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