Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week the Blacktown City Council presented the Blacktown Fiesta, which was held across my electorate of Greenway and that of Chifley. This year's theme was 'embracing the community'. The Blacktown Fiesta provides the greatest opportunity to celebrate our vital cultural identity with an amazing array of events giving our local community entertaining and unique opportunities to experience extraordinary cultural performances from Australia and the world.

On show this year was the strong multicultural landscape and youthful experiences of Western Sydney. On Saturday I attended the highlight of the Blacktown Fiesta, the Streets Alive and Parade Day. It featured over 300 street stalls, performance stages, gourmet food stalls and plenty of ongoing attractions. A variety of cultural and community groups took part in the parade, including Filipino, Sikh and Hindu—all of whom are valuable contributors to my electorate.

Events such as the Blacktown Fiesta remind us of how strong our local community is. While there were a number of highly entertaining displays during the festival, including performances by Justice Crew and Hi-5, the most revealing was the display of local community spirit on show. We—the member for Chifley and I—proudly display our 'I love Blacktown' T-shirts and scarves wherever possible because we appreciate how privileged we are to represent the great residents of Blacktown in this place.