Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Tuesday night, last week, I was the keynote speaker at the annual AGM of the Australian Greek Welfare Society, which has been rebranded and is now known as Pronia. For over 40 years, Pronia has provided settlement services to the broader Greek community and has always been available to assist members in those early years, those critical early years, of migration to Australia. In addition to settlement services, Pronia has provided and continues to provide a very comprehensive aged care volunteer program and services, which see thousands of wonderful volunteers look after and visit many of the elderly of the Greek community who are now residing in nursing homes. The Greek community is one of a number of migrant communities that is now ageing, and aged care services are critical. The Greek community is also receiving new migrants from Greece as a result of the economic situation there, so a whole new wave of migrants are in need of important settlement services.

Outgoing CEO, Ms Voula Messimeri, has spent 27 years of her professional life at the helm of Pronia. I want to thank her for her great service to the organisation and, in particular, for the tremendous amount of work that she has done in the broader community, especially as an adviser on multicultural policy at both federal and state government levels. I wish her very well in the future.