Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Hopefully, I can bring a bit of common sense back to the debate here. I rise to inform the House of a recent visit to my electorate of Spence by the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs during the winter break. It was a fantastic opportunity to have the minister in Spence to hold as many events involving his three portfolios as we could.

My electorate of Spence is home to a vast number of proud, vibrant and active multicultural diaspora communities who hail from all parts of the globe. The sheer number of diaspora communities in Spence truly vindicates the claim that Australia is one of the most successful multicultural nations in the world.

Over a number of hours I had the pleasure of showing the minister around Salisbury, along with the Mayor of the City of Salisbury, Gillian Aldridge, and the Hon. Zoe Bettison MP, who is both the state member for Salisbury and the Minister for Tourism and Multicultural Affairs in the South Australian government. We visited the Australian Refugee Association to see firsthand some of the great work they do. We then took a walk through John Street in Salisbury and visited a number of businesses, such as Afghan Flavour and Bahar Supermarket. Lastly, we arrived at the Salisbury Community Hub for an event with HOST International. We had a roundtable with the team and a number of community leaders until it was finally time for the HOST International community celebration awards for Refugee Week. I'd like to thank all involved throughout the day for making the event so successful.

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