Speech – Lunar New Year Festival
Ni hao, Box Hill.
Gong Xi Fa Cai.
Could I thank firstly, Bihong Wang and the Asian Business Association of Whitehorse.
Can I thank as well and acknowledge the major sponsor here Golden Age for their support for this event.
Can I importantly acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are the traditional owners of this land and pay my respects to their elders, past, present and emerging.
And say to the people here gathered, that just as today we are celebrating multicultural Australia, later this year you will have an opportunity to honour the traditional owners of this land by recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our nation’s birth certificate, our Constitution, and I urge you, multicultural Australia to vote yes to that referendum.
Can I acknowledge my friend, Minister Andrew Giles, the Minister for Multicultural Affairs. The local Federal Member here Carina Garland, who’s doing such a fantastic job of recognising this community.
The local state member Paul Hamer, the Member for Box Hill.
The local Mayor, Mark Lane, and all of the federal, state and local government representatives who are gathered here today, I welcome you all, one and all.
Can I say Happy Year of the Rabbit.
I’m very pleased that it’s the Year of the Rabbit, I was born in the Year of the Rabbit.
I’m told this is very auspicious, so I have my red tie with lots of little bunnies on it, lots of rabbits.
And I told that that will bring a great deal of good luck.
I want to thank this community for sharing your culture with us.
The great benefit and the great promise of Australia is that we can be a microcosm for the entire world.
We can show that people of different faiths, language, food, culture, dance, can come together and be enriched by our diversity.
And there is no more important community going back over the last more than 200 years than the Chinese community, who in increasing numbers have gathered to make Australia your home.
Lastly can I acknowledge as well, the Consul General of the People’s Republic of China who has joined us here today.
Lunar New Year is a time to celebrate, but it’s also a time to reflect.
To acknowledge the generations that have come before us.
We thank them and we honour them with our personal success, but also our building of a better future in this country for all.
Every Lunar New Year is a new beginning.
And it is a good sign that for the year ahead it is the Year of the Rabbit.
For the Vietnamese community for their Zodiac, it is the Year of the Cat and I wish a Happy New Year of the Cat to all members of the Vietnamese community, whether they gather with us here today or wherever they are.
I sincerely wish that you have a year that is happy, that is prosperous, that is peaceful and that is secure.
I thank you for the very warm welcome to this magnificent part of Melbourne here.
This is a great part of multicultural Australia.
I’m very proud to be here for the first time as the Prime Minister of Australia and I thank this community for giving me that great honour.
Xie xie.
Have a great day.