Remarks - Deepavali Celebration Function
21 October 2019
Canberra, ACT
PRIME MINISTER: Once again, Namaste.
[Applause]
The High Commissioner, fellow Members of Parliament, in particular Josh Frydenberg the Treasurer is here from our Cabinet, as indeed of course is Alan Tudge, a member of our Cabinet, and David Coleman, our Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs amongst many other things and to all the colleagues who are here from all sides of politics, can I welcome you all.
Friends, for more than fourteen years, the doors of this Parliament have been thrown open to celebrate Deepavali.
And this is getting bigger and bigger every year, like everything in India does.
[Laughter]
We have lots of great events in this Great Hall but the best events are the ones where the community is involved and I get to wear something like this.
[Applause]
The turnout tonight is wonderful and there is a great spirit about the gathering we are having here this evening. And we join with hundreds of millions around the world participating in this 2,500 year old festival of faith.
A wonderful celebration of light over darkness.
Of knowledge over ignorance.
Of good over evil.
I said in a similar gathering here in this Parliament a week ago, a Prayer Breakfast, and I talked about the importance of faith in people’s lives.
And I said that faith wasn’t about piety. Faith was about understanding our human frailty.
And in that understanding of human frailty, we are connected all to each other in our vulnerabilities.
And so when we understand that, we do pray for knowledge over ignorance and we do pray for light over darkness and we do pray for good over evil, which this wonderful celebration is about.
More than 700,000 people of Indian descent now call Australian home. Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Muslims amongst many others.
It is our fastest-growing diaspora in Australia and it is a community that has given so incredibly much to Australia.
India is the world’s biggest democracy and it is one of the greatest beacons of light to democracy and we are pleased to see a wonderful powerful economy being built on such a strong, democratic foundation.
There is so much we share together - democracy, language and even a national day. The links and history between our peoples are great, through both peace and war.
We are the most successful multicultural country on earth in Australia.
[Applause]
And as I often talk about in functions like this, there are many metaphors which are given to explain multiculturalism in Australia.
But the one I like best is garam masala.
[Laughter]
Garam masala, that better? Getting there?
Getting the cloves, the cardamom, you put it all together. You have one of them on their own - rubbish.
[Laughter]
It doesn’t leave a good taste in the mouth.
But when you blend them all together, you taste them, you grind them up - wow.
[Applause]
And that is the fragrance that comes from Australia’s multicultural society, of which those of Hindu faith and the Indian national people have come here representing so magnificently.
But there is more to acknowledge in this relationship.
We often speak of the 26,000 Australians who were casualties at Gallipoli.
But what we don’t often speak of is the 1,400 Indians who fell, and the more than 3,500 who were wounded in that battle, side by side with our ANZACs.
Last year, a small community in Cherrybrook, in Julian Leeser’s electorate, and he’s here. No one is more committed to this relationship than Julien, I can assure you, because he’s actually learning to speak Indian. Congratulations.
[Applause]
And they raised the funds to erect a memorial to the Indian soldiers who joined the AIF.
I’m reminded of the story of the Garhwal Rifles – Indian troops who served on the Western Front.
They suffered through all the horrors and hardships of trench warfare in the Great War.
On Christmas Eve, 1914, they were dug in near the French village, a small little French village of Neuve-Chapelle.
And then something odd happened.
The guns fell silent and music could be heard from the German lines and we know the story of Christmas carols.
It was the Christmas Truce – a spontaneous act of peace and compassion seen up and down the Western Front.
The Indians looked on as the Germans began to place small candle-lit trees along their trenches.
And while that reminded those of the Christian faith of Christmas, the lights reminded those of the Hindu faith of Deepavali.
This was a story and an experience which is often remembered amongst those of the Christian faith when they look back at that time.
But here was an engagement with another faith, a little piece of home, far away on a foreign shore, in a foreign war.
And so the guns would remain silent on that Christmas Day.
And so light, for that short period of time, did prevail over darkness.
Good did prevail over evil.
And there was a Deepavali message we can all embrace regardless of whatever faith we have.
So I wish you all a very happy and joyous and prosperous Deepavali.
[Applause]
It is a wonderful time for family, it is a wonderful time for friends and community to reflect on the wonderful life that those who have come to Australia over many generations or more recently and the contribution that you’ve been able to make and that we can celebrate together.
But best of all, it’s a wonderful time of celebration and some really good food. Enjoy.
[Applause]