Page 775 - Week 02 - Thursday, 23 February 2012
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Senator Lundy responded to my letter. In her letter Senator Lundy noted that the key issue was that the members of the council were selected on merit. I have to say that I find it surprising that there was no-one of merit in the ACT. In any case, I think it is a mistake to not ensure that all states and territories are represented. I note that the official list of members of the council does list the names and states of each member, suggesting that their jurisdiction does come into play.
I also note, obviously, that we have unique issues that we can actually inform on from the ACT’s perspective because of the number of embassies here and because we have one of the major multicultural festivals in the country. Mr Sam Wong has been acknowledged. I also acknowledge that he was appointed an ambassador of Australia. Through his role he will be able to liaise with the Australian Multicultural Council. Again, I think it is disappointing that we have the one ambassador and we do not have any representatives on that council. Hopefully, this is something that will be rectified.
In the brief time I have got I also acknowledge, as Mrs Dunne did, the strong Tongan community. There is a very strong Pacific Islander community here. I would like to congratulate the government on granting the exemption for the kava circle at the Multicultural Festival. I think it was a very good decision. I went to the meeting at which this was discussed before the Multicultural Festival. There was a very strong depth of feeling there, because it is such an important part of their culture. It was wonderful to have that recognised through the exemption being granted.
I absolutely agree with Mrs Dunne that our society would be much the worse in all respects if we did not have multiculturalism in our country. That is in all respects, from food to dance to culture to everything that it offers. It enlivens our culture and we should be very proud of that.
MR DOSZPOT (Brindabella) (3.45): I thank Mrs Dunne for her MPI today:
The contribution made by the multicultural community in the ACT.
The contributions of the multicultural community in the ACT come from many areas—business, artistic, sporting, scientific, medical and political. I will try and touch upon a few of these, time permitting. I will start with the Canberra multicultural forum, which has a wide and inclusive membership. I think we are all mentioning a few of the same names, but after getting past the multicultural forum I hope I can contribute some new names in this MPI today. The chair of the multicultural forum is Mr Sam Wong. Originally from Hong Kong, he arrived in Melbourne in the early 1970s and retired from the Australian government as principal pharmacist after 36 years of public service.
Sam Wong has served the ACT multicultural community for over three decades and since 2007 has been the chair of the Canberra multicultural forum. We thank him for his contribution, and also his family contribution. Quite a few members within the multicultural community have many family members handling different aspects of involvement with the community and the Wong family is one. Chin Wong has already been mentioned by, I think, all of my colleagues speaking before me. I would simply
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