Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to endorse the Harmony Day celebrations which occurred on 21 March—an annual celebration of Australia's cultural diversity which is about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone. Harmony Day coincides with the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. This year we celebrate 15 years of Harmony Day.

Last year, on Saturday, 18 October, it was my pleasure to have organised and invited members of our local community to the One Goal, One Community Day, the World Game comes to Fawkner—Celebrating Multiculturalism and Diversity through Football event. As of June 2013, the city of Moreland had a population of over 160,000 people. Over one-third of our residents were born overseas and, of those born overseas, 86 per cent come from non-English-speaking backgrounds. The day brought together former Socceroos Craig Foster, David Zdrilic, Alan Davidson, Simon Colosimo; SBS talent and 'Mr Football' Les Murray; John Fawkner Secondary College; Melbourne City College of Football; and the wider local community to celebrate our proudly diverse community through the unifying message of world football.

The day saw the former Socceroos and SBS All Stars take on the John Fawkner College and the Melbourne City Football Academy for the One Goal, One Community Cup, which was kindly donated by Pascoe Vale Soccer Store. The game was played in great spirit. The SBS All Stars took out the cup in a tight-fought 3-2 contest, with the young John Fawkner side relishing the experience to play against the former top flight players, as well as my own staffer Anthony Cianflone, who, despite much talk, could not keep a clean sheet in goals for the SBS All Stars.

The game was followed by a junior football clinic hosted by the Futsal Oz centre in Brunswick, with star futsal V-League players hosting the clinic. The day was an outstanding success, with over 200 residents attending and with many official partners and supporters, whom I would like to thank, in particular, SBS; John Fawkner Secondary College and Principal Gus Napoli; Melbourne City Football Club; Moreland City Council; Moreland Youth Services; oxYgen project; AFC Asian Cup; Football Federation Victoria; Victoria Police; The Big Issue's Community Street Soccer Program; Futsal Oz, the Human Rights Commission; referee Leo Manca; Pascoe Vale Soccer Store; Zaatar restaurant; and Joe's Pizza in Coburg.

Football can play an important role to help build community, cultural understanding, inclusion, respect and resilience. I hope to be able to host the One Goal, One Community Cup day again in 2015, ideally in the newly built state-of-the-art football facilities at CB Smith Reserve in Fawkner, the opening of which I attended earlier this month.