Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to acknowledge the wonderful experiences that have happened in Bennelong over the last month as we celebrated both Australia Day and lunar new year. Saturday was the official end of the previous lunar new year, the year of the dragon. In Bennelong across our incredibly diverse community we held celebration after celebration, weekend after weekend, and our community really got into it. I want to take some time to acknowledge some of the events and some of the organisers that put so much effort into these celebrations. What struck me—I've been going to these for quite some time—is that each and every year that we gather either in January or February to celebrate lunar new year the celebration gets bigger and bigger. It's not just the Chinese Australian, Korean Australian and Vietnamese Australian communities that are gathering together and celebrating luna new year. It's everybody, and I think that's what's so fantastic about Bennelong and also the country we live in. It's become part of our culture to celebrate the culture of others.

Following was a really successful Australia Day in Bennelong—and congratulations to the city of Ryde and the city of Parramatta for their great events—we then flipped the switch and went straight into weeks of lunar new year celebrations. On 3 February in Eastwood, the multicultural heart of Bennelong, there were Chinese new year street stalls and celebrations with performances from traditional Chinese dragon and lion dancers. Red pockets were handed out to the people of Eastwood. And we had a lot of local councillors attending. We then went on to Rowe Street East in Koreatown where we had a new year street walk with traditional Korean drum dancers. We handed out blue packets in Koreatown, and we then brought both these communities together, along with our local business community, in the Eastwood town centre to celebrate and acknowledge a bumper start to the new year. As I said, we went from Australia Day celebrations straight into lunar new year celebrations, celebrating our diversity and bringing our community together.

On 4 February, I was lucky to be invited to the return of the dragon lunar new year event in Sydney's Chinatown—and a big shoutout to Johnny and the Lion Dance Kids for their exemplary dragon dance performance. They had a 12-metre-long dragon, one of the biggest they've ever performed with.

On 10 February, which was the actual lunar new year, our local Feng Hua Chinese School had a special celebration for lunar new year, and I was pleased to welcome the Minister for Education, the member for Blaxland, to give an address. It's such an important part of our multicultural society that young kids, in particular, can learn about the culture of their parents and grandparents.

Sixty-six per cent of people who live in Bennelong have both their parents born overseas, and being able to speak a second language is incredibly important to our community. The Feng Hua Chinese School not only teaches young Australian kids how to speak Mandarin but also teaches them some of the traditions of their friends and family. Minister Claire, the Minister for Education, had a wonderful time as we again celebrated lunar new year. That led straight into the Eastwood night markets, where we had a lion eye dotting ceremony, attended by councillors as well.

Then—it keeps on going!—on 11 February the Eastwood Chinese Senior Citizens Club held celebrations. The new president Joey Chan officiated. There was lion dancing. The god of wealth was there. There were performances by local schools and dance groups, and of course many street stalls. CASS, who have a home in West Ryde and do wonderful work in diverse communities in Bennelong, had their official ceremony on 16 February. And then, on 17 February, the City of Ryde held their massive lunar new year event, proudly supported by a grant from the Australia-Korea Foundation, administered through DFAT, with $15,000 going to a special Korea Town lunar new year lantern festival. It's been a bumper month. It's been great to be there.