Alan Griffin (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This 21st of March will be the 15th occasion where we as a nation have celebrated Harmony Day. Harmony Day has been an important part of the multicultural calendar over that 15 years. It is all about celebrating Australia's cultural diversity. It is about inclusiveness, it is about respect and it is about a sense of belonging for everyone. It is something which has been celebrated here in Canberra at Parliament House on cold mornings, as it will be tomorrow morning, when members of the parliamentary football group go out and do battle against a team of former professionals based at SBS. Tomorrow I will be joined by the member for Forde and possibly others to do battle, as we have for several years now—and 'battle' is very much the word. We battle and we strive. We try and have harmony, but I have to say that, at times, even I have been guilty of occasionally raising my voice in anger and frustration. It is certainly an opportunity for us to get out there and together celebrate the fact that we are a very culturally diverse society. We work together and we practise our teamwork. At the end of the day, we might get flogged, but we get flogged together. It will be an occasion where people like Les Murray and Craig Foster will be out there. I just hope they are kind to us.