Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I extend Labor's best wishes to everyone celebrating Songkran, Thai new year. Over three days in April, people visit Buddhist temples to perform the ritual of merit making by making offerings to Buddha and monks, reuniting with family to seek blessings from elders and gathering with community to welcome the new year.

One of the unique traditions of Songkran is the engagement of whole communities, families and even strangers in a water festival, a water play fight. On the streets and in cars, people throw water at each other to symbolise the washing away of misfortunes in the past year.

The beauty of Songkran lies in its power to unit families, friends and communities, regardless of age, in a celebration of hope, prosperity and good fortune for the year to come—values that are interwoven into the fabric of our multicultural society in Australia and embraced by all Australians regardless of faith, culture or background.

Jewish communities in Australia and around the world will mark the beginning of an eight-day celebration of Passover, or Pesach, on 10 April this year. Passover is a significant event for Jewish communities. It is firmly established in the historic account of freedom from persecution. It is a story of exodus and inspiration or tale of liberation for Israelites who, under the leadership of the prophet Moses and faith in God, were freed from slavery and oppression.

Some of Passover's most dominant traditions include gathering with family, friends and community around a table to eat unleavened bread, matzo, while telling the story of exodus over four glasses of wine. It is stories like this that reaffirm our devotion to values and principles of freedom, hope and unity in Australia. Labor extends best wishes to everyone observing Passover in Australia and around the world.

I extend Labor's best wishes to all Buddhist communities in Australia celebrating Theravada new year. Theravada new year is a Buddhist festival celebrated by followers of the Theravada doctrine, translated as 'school of the elder monks'.

Theravada teachings encourage and promote discipline, knowledge and critical reasoning through deep reflection. Some of the most powerful traditions and practices of Theravada come from the oldest recorded Buddhist text, the Pali Canon.

The seven stages of purification form the foundations of the Buddhist path, some of which include the purification of conduct, the mind and knowledge that lead to the attainment of nirvana, a transcended state of peace and the ultimate goal in Buddhism. Values and principles of peace, self-reflection and virtue are part of modern multicultural Australia and cultivate our sense of pride in the diversity of our nation—the beauty of which lies in myriad cultures, beliefs and people who together call Australia home.