Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Waheguru ji ka khalsa, waheguru ji ki fateh. Guru Nanak Dev Ji was the founder of Sikhism and the first of the 10 Sikh gurus, and on the weekend I attended a celebration in my electorate of Guru Nanak's 550th birthday, which was a great honour. What a wonderful philosopher, revolutionary and activist Guru Nanak was for the world, well ahead of his time.

At the time of his birth, South-East Asian society was riddled with social problems—feudal economic relations, a religious based caste system. Yet Guru Nanak offered dignity to the people in the lower hierarchy of society by emphasising that everyone was equal—man or woman, rich or poor—and by rejecting religious hatred and showing that actions were much more important than dogma or labels. Guru Nanak's timeless teachings remain a source of inspiration for millions today, and the global Sikh community bring his teachings into their own lives as social activists, serving humanity and treating all people equally.

I congratulate Sikh Volunteers Australia, who continue Guru Nanak's practice of langar, the community kitchen where everyone is equal, which provides free vegetarian food funded by a sharing of their own monthly earnings. Through his emphasis on the belief that a good life is lived within and as part of the community, Guru Nanak brought equality, good actions, honesty and hard work to the core of the value system of his followers—a value system which we would be wise to cherish today here in modern Australia, especially at a time when inequality is rising.