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

That's actually a lovely springboard into what I was going to say. Bruce, my community, just a little to the south of the Member for Menzies, covering large chunks of the Greater Dandenong and Casey councils, is one of the most culturally diverse places on earth—not just ancestry, ethnicity, country of birth or languages spoken at home, but religion and faith groups. The faith make-up in Bruce is different to most communities around Australia; it's broad and it's relatively evenly spread. Western Catholicism makes up about 20 per cent. Close to 15 per cent these days are people of Islamic faith—Sunni, Shia and many other Islamic traditions. But then there's a very even spread of Buddhism; Hinduism, a fast-growing religion; Anglican; Greek orthodox; and a spread of Sikhism, Serbian, Ukrainian, Lutheran, Mormons, Uniting Church; my family, I guess; as well as the Coptics. I did award the Coptics so far the best food at a church fete award, which has caused a little bit of a competition, and it's a competition that I'm happy to see and participate in. There are of course the Baha'is and many other smaller Christian sects. There are 30 per cent of people with no faith.

This diversity is a strength, but it also means that we need to invest in social cohesion—in deliberate efforts to foster interfaith understanding, dialogue and community harmony. I was delighted to recently host the Bruce interfaith forum, with over 50 religious and faith community leaders, a rich diversity and spread of the community, with the mayor of Greater Dandenong; interfaith groups in Dandenong and Casey; Senator Deb O'Neill from New South Wales, who attended to help moderate; state MPs Belinda Wilson and Lee Tarlamis; and my very dear friend Roz Blades AM, who was on council for the best part of 30 years, many times mayor, and active in the interfaith group as a person of Jewish faith.

It was a terrific discussion, sharing current issues and experiences and identifying areas where governments and faith leaders can work together. Religious worker visas came up. It's an issue that the former government made changes to. It's still not right. We need to have another look at it. We discussed social issues, poverty, addiction and family violence. A good priest in many ways has some parallels with a good local MP. People come to you with every kind of problem imaginable and expect you to solve it somehow or do something with it. There was also discussion of cultural and community facilities, especially old churches with heritage buildings but also newly established communities that don't have the financial resources yet to set up their community structures, be they places of worship, centres and so on.

Finally, it was also a chance to give an update on Labor's commitment to introduce new federal laws to prevent discrimination on the grounds of religion, which we will do in this term. The ALRC's report will soon be released to inform, then, laws—

James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Are there any constituency statements?