Kate Lundy (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

Harmony Day is celebrated around Australia every year on 21 March. It is a day to celebrate our cultural diversity, and its overriding message is 'Everyone belongs'. It is a uniquely Australian day and it builds on international recognition of the need to promote inclusion. Harmony Day marks the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and I am proud to represent a government committed not only to eliminating discrimination but also to the promotion of a truly inclusive society.

Today hundreds of thousands of Australians will show their support for cultural diversity in Australia. At some 4,300 Harmony Day events around our childcare centres, our schools, our sports groups, our arts organisations, our community groups, our churches, our businesses, and our federal, state and local government agencies and councils throughout Australia, we will be celebrating. Businesses in particular will celebrate through the Scanlon Foundation's Taste of Harmony, a campaign that was built around Harmony Day with workplaces across Australia celebrating over their favourite meals. I want to thank all the participants on all sides of politics for their attendance at our morning tea at our workplace here in Parliament House this morning. I thank the Ottoman Cuisine restaurant and the Migrant and Refugee Settlement Service of the ACT for their involvement in our event this morning. Last year more than 175,000 Australians experienced the joy of sharing food and stories from their backgrounds through the Taste of Harmony program. As I said, this year we had an opportunity to as well.

Harmony Day is a day where we can all, through activities and celebrations, learn about our cultural diversity, where our neighbours and friends have come from and what their background experiences have been. (Time expired)