Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Sunday the Northbridge Piazza, Perth, held its second all-in Eid al-Adha celebration. The aim of this festival is to invite the wider Perth community into the celebrations of the Islamic community. Just as people of all faiths and no faiths engage in the Christmas festivals, and as Chinese New Year is now absolutely entrenched in Australia's cultural calendar, we would like to see the same applying to Eid. It is this sharing of celebration, making your stuff our stuff, that weaves the strands of multicultural Australia into a rich tapestry.

We had food, music, fabric and dancing all there under the blazing Perth sky. I told the group that we want no 'us' and 'them'; Australia is an inclusive culture and we want all our people to prosper. I noted that there had been an Islamic community in Northbridge for over 120 years and indeed our mosque is over 100 years old. There have always been issues that confront the waves of migration. It used to be the Irish, then it was the Italians and Greeks and then the Vietnamese. But sooner or later we all get the hang of each other pretty quickly with endeavour all around. I passed on best wishes from our fabulous Islamic parliamentarians, Ed Husic and Jihad Dib, and I passed on in particular Jihad's comments to the Perth community that if a bloke called Jihad can win an election at this time it tells us the sky is the limit for anyone in this country.

I want to give a thank you, give a big shout-out, to Iqbal Samnakay from the Muslim Social and Sports Association. Iqbal, you did a great job organising the festival of course with the help of the irrepressible Zarin Siddiqui and the lively emceeing of Mel Fowlher. We met the three musketeers, our very favourite: Constable Zen Mohammed, Dr Annie Brassard and Kaitha Brassard. These are women doing fantastic work with recent Islamic migrant women and helping them see the opportunities for education and work that is now available to them in this country. Well done to everyone involved and Eid Mubarak for many years to come.