Daniel Mulino (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to acknowledge the celebration of the Lunar New Year in my electorate. 2020 is the Year of the Rat, the first animal in the Vietnamese zodiac. The rat is an animal that symbolises intelligence and resilience. According to some legends, the Jade Emperor called on the animals of the zodiac to race to his presence, and the rat, through cunning and intelligence, managed to be the first animal to reach his foot, and the Emperor therefore chose the rat to be the first animal in the zodiac. So this is a very important year for Vietnam, as well as for many other countries in East Asia.

The Lunar New Year is the biggest event on the calendar for many countries in South-East Asia. There are two celebrations, in particular, in my electorate that I would like to acknowledge. One is the celebration in the Quang Minh Temple in Braybrook, which attracts tens of thousands of visitors every year, and the other is the celebration in Alfrieda Street organised by many volunteers in that community as well as the St Albans Business Group Association. Both of these celebrations host an incredible amount of Vietnamese cuisine and food from other countries. They have a packed entertainment schedule, with traditional dancing and singing as well as, of course, fireworks displays, which singed a number of local politicians and other dignitaries, much to the delight of the crowd.

These are very, very important celebrations within the local community, and I want to acknowledge the leaders of the Vietnamese community for organising these but also the many, many unthanked volunteers who put in hundreds of hours to make sure that these events happen every year. I also want to acknowledge the fact that at this year's celebrations, in addition to celebrating the new year, so many people in the community came together to support our broader community and those who have experienced so much loss during the bushfires. For example, at the St Albans Vietnamese New Year celebrations on Alfrieda, over $20,000 was raised for victims of the bushfire. This was just one component of many different fundraising efforts organised by the St Albans business traders and many volunteers at the Quang Minh Temple and more broadly.

I also acknowledge the Keilor Gift athletics carnival, which is going to be held this coming weekend. This is a major community event in my electorate. It's been held dating back to February 1933. In its early years, the Keilor Gift featured horse events, cycling and woodchopping, and it has now become one of the most important professional running events on the circuit. I'm very pleased to host the woodchopping program this year, but I can stress that I won't be a participant—much to the disappointment of the crowd, I'm sure! I wish all participants good luck. (Time expired)