Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to wish everybody living in my community and in wider Australia a happy and harmonious Deepavali. Deepavali is the biggest festival in the Hindu calendar. It actually starts on 25 October and runs for four days, but in my community of Parramatta we celebrate it through so many communities that it tends to spill out over a two-week period. I'll be off to a few events this weekend. It's also known as the Festival of Lights and it symbolises the victory of good over evil, light over darkness and knowledge over ignorance, but not in the way that we sometimes battle it out here. These are the hard battles. These are the battles within, when we look within ourselves and find the best and the worst, and we strengthen the best and weaken the qualities that we don't want. It's a remarkable time in my electorate of Parramatta. We share a common humanity across this country, but, through millennia, communities in different parts of the world have found different ways to pursue the common human goal of being a better person. It may have been influenced by the nature of their land or the religion that grew over millennia, but we share that common humanity, and in Parramatta we celebrate the different ways we approach that single human purpose of being a better human being. I will be delighted to join in some local celebrations over the coming weekend. Some early ones are in Westmead, at Darcy Road Public School; in Harris Park with the Council of Indian Australians; and in Wentworthville with Cumberland Council. I'm so proud of my community. Happy Deepavali to everyone.