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

It isn't news that the electorate of Fraser is one of the most diverse in the country,. With diversity comes vibrance, and Fraser has never felt as vibrant as over the past month.

One of the highlights of my year is always the citizenship ceremonies held over the Australia Day weekend. I always find it inspiring to meet our newest citizens and to hear their incredible stories. I was also thrilled to hear that one of Footscray's own became a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2025 Australia Day honours. Kleoniki Matziaris-Garay arrived in Australia from Greece at the age of 18 and has spent her life since then in the service of other migrants from Greece through the Australian Greek Welfare Society, Pronia. Pronia was established to help newly arrived Greek migrants to overcome language barriers and navigate government agencies and services. Kleoniki is a worthy recipient of Australia Day honours for her long service and embodies the spirit of service that makes our community thrive.

Communities right across my electorate have welcomed the Year of the Wood Snake with events that reflect all the colour and movement of Melbourne's west. Chuc mung nam moi At Ty. It has been a packed calendar, kicking off in Footscray on 12 January with an amazing event that successfully resisted the elements. On 19 January, the St Albans Business Group Association transformed Alfrieda Street in the heart of St Albans, hosting tens of thousands of revellers from breakfast to bedtime. Every year I think it can't get much bigger, and every year I'm happily proven wrong. In the spirit of healthy, celebratory competition, the Sunshine Business Association mounted a Tet festival on 26 January that saw the Hampshire Road shopping street filled with red pockets, red dragons, golden lions and painted faces.

Forty-eight hours later, I had to rustle up an appetite. I was in Braybrook for the Quang Minh Tet Festival. The Quang Minh temple is the spiritual heart of Victoria's Buddhist community, and lunar new year at the temple is an extraordinary experience. I encourage everyone in Melbourne to seek it out for next year's lunar celebration. It won't be an early night, but it will be an unforgettable one.

This weekend, the Vietnamese Community in Australia Victoria Chapter will bring to a close almost a month of lunar new year celebrations. On 15 and 16 February, a massive celebration will occur at Footscray Park. Tet is a time for Vietnamese families to come together to honour their ancestors and to look forward to a promise of a fresh start. 2025 is particularly significant for the Vietnamese community, who make up a third of Fraser's constituents. It marks 50 years since the arrival of the first Vietnamese refugees. The initial group was small in both number and size. They were orphaned children evacuated from Vietnam as a part of Operation Babylift. They were followed a year later by the first adult refugees, who had sailed more than 3,500 kilometres, seeking the fresh start that is celebrated at Tet. Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser's decision to open the doors to more than 100,000 Vietnamese refugees came at a time that Fraser himself described as one in which 'the major political parties did not play politics with race or religion, with the lives of people fleeing from terror'. It was an honourable and courageous decision that changed the refuge and the refugee equally. The 100,000 refugees that made their home in Australia have run businesses and raised families. They have excelled in the professions, in community services, in the arts and in so much more. They have birthed their children on and buried their dead in Australian soil. Their stories have become Australian stories, and they are as many and varied as the people who carry them.

I'd like to share one with you now. About a month ago I visited a constituent to wish her a happy birthday. Mrs Thi So Nguyen turned 105 this year and welcomed me to her family home in Cairnlea. Mrs Nguyen is a mother of eight and arrived in Australia at the age of 75 to be reunited with two of her daughters. It had been years since Mrs Nguyen had farewelled their daughters as they made the perilous journey to Australia. The eight children that she raised alone in difficulty, after the war in Vietnam and after her husband had been executed in front of her eyes, had scattered across the globe following the war. It has been many years since Mrs Nguyen has had her children in the same place at the same time, and at 105 she recognises that it may never happen again.

So, as the festivals of this Lunar New Year come to a close, we look to the next, and we look forward to families reunited, to ancestors honoured and to the promise of a fresh start.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Fraser. On behalf of the member for Gellibrand, the member for Mallee and the member for Fraser, I too would like to wish all Vietnamese Australian a wonderful new year, and, for the first time since Federation, a Speaker will say, 'Chuc mung nam moi.'

House adjourned at 19:59

The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Scrymgour ) took the chair at 10:30.