Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I want to talk about three great events in my electorate of Parramatta. Earlier this week the Darulfatwa Islamic High Council of Australia and the Islamic Charity Projects Association held their eighth annual Multicultural Mawlid concert. Because of the pressures of parliament I was unable to attend this year, but I have gone to Mawlid concerts in the past years and they have always been incredible events. Western Sydney is home to so many languages and cultures and the Mawlid concert brings so many of them together. The concert is first and foremost to commemorate the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, but is also a great day out for families in the larger community. The event also marked the opening of the International Islamic Peace Conference, which is taking place in Sydney this year.

This year the concert was actually a musical play, with more than 170 actors and performers from Australia, Lebanon, Sudan, Iraq, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Uyghur community, Pakistan, Bosnia, West Africa, Palestine, Syria, KSA and America—it sounds like my local suburb. The Islamic Charity Projects Association chanting band also performed. For those of you who haven't heard it, it is really worth hearing. The huge audience from right across Australia watched this performance, along with over 100 international academic and religious leaders. Congratulations to both Darulfatwa and the Islamic Charity Projects Association on such a successful event. Events such as the Mawlid concert are a great reminder of the riches of Western Sydney, and I look forward to joining them next year—fingers crossed that parliament doesn't sit at the same time.

Our community recently received great news concerning the Parramatta Female Factory, one of our greatest heritage assets. After years of campaigning by the local community, the Parramatta Female Factory was finally placed on the National Heritage List last month. I have spoken in this place many times about why the factory is so special, and I thank the Australian Heritage Council for recognising the inherent value of this site.

I'd also like to thank a whole lot of people who have looked after this site and argued for it and protected it for so long: Bonney Djuric and Jacinta Tobin from Parragirls and the Parramatta Female Factory Precinct Memory Project; Suzette Meade and all the members of the North Parramatta Residents Action Group; Gay Hendricksson, June Bullivant, Ronda Gaffey and all of the people who volunteer for the Parramatta Female Factory Friends; and, of course, the National Trust. It's a time to celebrate this achievement but also to recognise that the fight is not yet over.

The Parramatta Female Factory deserves and needs to be World Heritage listed. The national heritage listing provides protection for part of the site, but the New South Wales state government and UrbanGrowth, its development arm, are intent on developing thousands of units up against the walls of the factory. To join the campaign, I urge people to sign the Parramatta Female Factory Friends petition calling for World Heritage listing so that the community and future generations can enjoy this fantastic piece of history right in the heart of Parramatta. The oldest female convict factory, a Greenway building, right in the heart of Parramatta deserves World Heritage listing.

Earlier this month, I visited our wonderful Granville Boys High School for White Ribbon Day. It is on 25 November, the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. There were a number of events in the electorate of Parramatta, many of which were led by our young men and women. Thank you especially to Granville Boys High School for inviting me to be part of the very special assembly and morning tea. Granville Boys High School is an official White Ribbon School, after taking part in the Breaking the Silence Schools Program in 2016. Breaking the Silence supports schools to implement programs that stop violence against women, and educate and empower young men to create cultures of respect and equality in all areas of their lives. Through changes to the curriculum, educational programs, increased interaction with the community, and the actions of their staff, the young men at the school are part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

Thanks go to Angela Barker for her powerful address as a survivor of domestic violence, and thanks go to the wonderful principal, Linda O'Brien; Jessica Cashman; and the rest of the teachers for creating a safe and challenging space for our fabulous young men at Granville Boys. They make me hopeful about our future—and, as principal Linda O'Brien knows, I just love the boys at Granville Boys; they make me smile. Walking through Parramatta, there were white ribbons tied on to the gates of schools and office buildings. I am incredibly proud of the young men and women who have embraced this cause.

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