Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

Recently, I had the great pleasure to be at the opening of the Sydney Taiwan Festival. This is the fifth Sydney Taiwan Festival to have been held. It was held in Victoria Avenue in Chatswood, which is at the southern end of my electorate and at the northern end of the electorate of my very good friend the member for North Sydney. In fact, both the member for North Sydney and I were present at this very important event.

The Taiwanese Australian community is a significant community around Australia and, indeed, within my electorate of Bradfield. As at the time of the most recent census, there were over 28,000 people born in Taiwan living in Australia. They are preponderantly to be found in Sydney and in Brisbane. Interestingly, almost half of those in Australia who were born in Taiwan have arrived in Australia in the last 10 years. The richness and vigour of Taiwanese community activity is really quite impressive, particularly when you consider the proportion of those who have arrived in the last 10 years.

The Sydney Taiwan Festival, held in Chatswood, featured more than 30 stalls. There were traditional Taiwanese food stalls in a night-market-style setting. There was a range of craft and cultural exhibits and there were popular children's folk games to introduce young people to Taiwanese culture. The event was well supported by local dignitaries. I want to commend Mr James Kuo, the chairman of the Taiwan Festival; Mr Chang Liang Ming, Chief Secretary Overseas Community Affairs Council, from Taiwan; Mr Morgan Chiang, Deputy Director General of the Taipei Economic and Culture Office Sydney; and also Mr Paul Lin.

The purpose of this very important festival is to give people of Taiwanese origin living in Sydney the chance to connect—or reconnect—with their culture, to allow the next generation of Taiwanese Australians a better understanding of their culture and heritage, and also very importantly, to showcase to the broader Australian community the contribution being made by those of Taiwanese background. The vigour of the cultural activities, the quality of some of the delicious food on offer, and many other features of this event very successfully achieved the objective of communicating to the broader Australian community the vigour of the Taiwanese Australian community. So let me express my thanks to everybody involved in organising this very significant event, the fifth Sydney Taiwan Festival. I was pleased to participate and I hope that I will have the opportunity to participate in future such events.

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