Remarks, Multicultural Community Awards Mirrabooka, WA
16 March 2022
Prime Minister: Thank you very much, Vince. Can I acknowledge you, of course. Can I acknowledge my colleagues who are here with me today, the Attorney-General Michaelia Cash, or MC as I call her. Senator Dean Smith, it's wonderful to be back with you here in Cowan. Now, I've been to Cowan many times and I've met many of you before. And usually when we meet you are more less constrained because of COVID rules. And it is usually quite a flourish and there's a lot of activity and there's a lot of movement. But you don't need to convince me of all that because I've seen it before and I know the passion that is in this community, and I particularly want to thank you Dean for the great work you've been doing in Cowan, and teaming up with Vince now. I am so thrilled Vince is standing for our candidate for Cowan after having done such an extraordinary job as the member for Stirling, which he continues to do now.
Can I acknowledge the Indigenous owners of the land on which we meet and thank you Len for your very warm Welcome to Country. Can I also acknowledge any veterans who are with us here today, and serving men and women of our Defence Forces. I’ve just been over with the SAS Regiment to lay a wreath there and had a chat to the team there and thank them for the tremendous job they do on behalf of our country. And just how much we respect and honour their service. The SAS Regiment is a great credit to our country and a great credit to Western Australia too and I know people feel very strongly about that all around the country.
But one such veteran is, of course, Vince himself, and I really want to thank Vince for the way he has conducted himself as a Member of Parliament. And that is what presents him so well to be the next Member for Cowan. The reason for that is Vince is 100 per cent hard and he is 100 per cent determination. He's also been incredibly [inaudible], he’s been able to draw on his experience in so many different walks of life, and his passion for supporting the ongoing care of veterans in this country is second to none. And I know he will seek to continue to serve out that area of passion as the Member for Cowan. But I tell you the other thing, he's also been a great champion of multicultural communities, not only in his current role, but also I know he is very familiar with the community here as well and the great work Dean has always done, particularly amongst the Burmese community. And I want to acknowledge the community down there and particularly the challenges they have been facing in Myanmar.
We have all been seeing what is occurring in the Ukraine, with the invasion by Russia. Sometimes you can allow to pass with our gaze the many other troubled parts of the world. Australia has not allowed that to happen in terms of our gaze and what’s occurring in Myanmar, and the terrible events that have occurred there, and we will continue to do everything we can to support the people of Myanmar. I know that must be terribly devastating to the Burmese community here in Australia. You have dealt with so much, and you have built such a wonderful life here in Australia, and this is your home, as you know, but your homeland is also something you will always feel a deep connection to. You have family there as well and I know you will be concerned.
In speaking, though, also about Ukraine, whenever something happens in the world, there is always a community here in Australia that is directly touched by it. There are some 40,000 Australians with Ukrainian descent in Australia. In Perth, in Sydney, Melbourne and so many other parts of the country. But this is also true when we saw the terrible blast in Beirut in Lebanon - tens of thousands of Australians, indeed living overseas in Lebanon, and also the enormous Lebanese community across Australia was touched by those events. And this occurs without exception as we see terrible events that often play around the world, and they will link back and they will touch a community here in Australia. And Australia I believe is the most successful multicultural and immigration nation in the world. Not arguably, it is. And the reason for that is because of how Australia embraces community.
Now, Vince was making this point, Dean’s made this point. Community is what binds us together. Not governments. Governments have jobs to do and they're important jobs to do in supporting and helping community, but it's actually community in the first instance that actually grabs the greater society. Community built on family. Built on the great aspirations of family and how that is nurtured within a community, and in the various ethnic communities of our country we have seen that over generations and generations and generations. As people have come to our shores, where have they first gone to seek support and comfort? They've gone to their communities of those who have come before, whether it's in my own hometown in Sydney, whether it was the Greek communities or the others who came, they'd be down with the Archbishop or they'd be down there at, whichever Greek Orthodox Church it was or Maronite Church, you’ve got Lebanese or others, and they would go there and they would find their comfort in their community, and they would be able to get on their feet today, and over the last 50 years. The Sikh temples have done the same. The mosques have done the same, and there has been a great work done to transplant and grow that community.
As a Government, we really understand that, and that's why I was pleased to come here today and honour the work that you have done as community leaders, because the stronger you are in your communities, the stronger Australia is. Now governments will do what we do to strengthen our Defence Forces and to do everything we can to get Australians into jobs and build our manufacturing industries. And ensure we have the support services that we can provide, be it the pension or the National Disability Insurance Scheme or the support we provide to support the victims of domestic violence and all of these things. But you know of all of that, because you assist us as the primary interface with the community. And we're at some risk, I think, we're at some risk that community might be handed over to the Government and that we will neglect community and think, well the Government will come in and do this, the Government will come in and do that. No. If we go down that path, Australia will be weaker because our communities will be weaker, and community is based on our fundamental sense of obligation and responsibility to each other. And that's what you live each and every day. The reason you lead a community and the way that you do is because you are motivated out of both your care and compassion and also your sense of responsibility to those sitting alongside you. And that's how you build a great country, and that's why we are a great country.
So it's been good to come here today and to thank you because these communities are the building blocks of Australia. And the fact that they are multicultural communities only highlights, I think, our strength as a nation, and it's with some pride I'm able to say to other leaders around the world, when I speak of them, most recently, the Ukrainian community in Australia. And how devastated they have been. But I've been able to say that they have been comforted by the so many other different multicultural communities here in Australia, because in Australia every community that has often come here has come from a position of suffering or discrimination, and they’ve come here to find peace and freedom and comfort. And so, the many ethnic communities in Australia have an empathy and an understanding of that hardship. And so when one is hurting, then the hand reaches out. And this is what makes our country I think incredibly strong.
And so I would encourage you, I would just encourage you to keep doing it. Keep feeding people, that 3,000 a week you feed isn’t it Margaret, or thereabouts. Amazing work. And so many of you doing so many more. At the Sikh temple, how many are you feeding a week? 3,000 too, we’ve got an auction going on here, but a positive one. See, it doesn't matter what your faith is or what your background is, we all come together in Australia, we all help each other. And that is what makes us strong, and I’m seeing this in my own home state of New South Wales at the moment with the terrible floods. And I say to all Western Australians, I met Western Australians up in the flood zone, up there helping. They're in our Defence Forces, they've been sent up by Emergency Management. They’ve been sent over also as volunteers and they're there and I can't tell you the encouragement that gives to people who have been so devastated by floods. And some will turn and say where are you from, and they'll say, I'm from Perth. They've come all the way across the country, come up from Tasmania, they've come down from Northern Queensland to help each other. This is what makes our country strong. So I want to continue to encourage you to go on that path. And I know that's what gets wins to this [inaudible].
I have seen in many communities. I've been around politics for some time. I know the difference between people who know how to do their job and one who doesn't. And Vince is one of those who knows how to do the job, and he knows that the best way to get results in his community is to knit his community together. To be the one who brings them together, to understand what the needs are. But also, it brings a great resource to the table. See, some think it's just a matter of, ok, here's a need, I'll ring up the Minister for this or the Minister for that. Sure, that happens. But the first response is how as a community can we meet this need. And then how can the Government then support that act and that effort that has been put in place in that community. And that's why Australia's a great multicultural society and why we are such a strong community, so let us never forget that we're strong because of what you do. And I want to thank you for that.
I'm so pleased that Vince you're able to acknowledge that together with Dean and Michaelia. And Mark, thank you for being here as well and part of this. You understand that as well [inaudible]. And I look forward to coming back on many more occasions, next time without the COVID restrictions and there will be much dancing, they’ll be much jumping up and down and playing the table tennis, and goodness knows what else occurred last time, it was quite, it was quite an occasion. But for now, thank you for everything you're doing with COVID. Western Australia will come through this, just like the rest of the country has, and before long we truly will be all together again and the way we really wish to. God bless and thank you all very much.
