It is a great privilege to speak today on the address-in-reply on the occasion of the formation of the 43rd Parliament. As always when we speak on these occasions, I want to begin by thanking the people of Calwell for their generous support and endorsement of me as their federal member.

I would like to bring to the attention of the House two significant events related to mental health that recently took place in my electorate of Calwell. The events coincided with Mental Health Week, which ran from 10-16 October, and World Mental Health Day, on 10 October, and marked significant initiatives whichwill determine how mental health issues are prevented, and indeed treated, in my electorate of Calwell over thecoming years. 

It is a pleasure to be participating in this very important debateon Australia’s commitment to the war in Afghanistan. It is a debate that is taking place in the ninth year of our involvement, and I think we can say that it is a war that Australians generally appear to have concerns about and may no longer support.

My grievance tonight is about an issue that was once central to government policy and widely accepted across mainstream politics but has now been relegated to a marginal and contentious place in the political agenda. I speak, of course, about multiculturalism. It is with much regret that I note the growing reluctance of politicians and opinion leaders to embrace or to even discuss multiculturalism.

Today I rise to talk about Australia’s largest multilingual institution,which reaches people and places both locally and internationally. It is an institution that has the ability to build communities, contribute to social cohesion and which, at the same time, empowers and trains thousands and thousands of volunteers. I am talking about community radio 3ZZZ, the largest ethnic community radio station in Australia, based in my home city of Melbourne.

I would like to talk about unemployment and some very worthwhile initiatives being undertaken to combat unemployment, youth unemployment in particular, in my electorate of Calwell. Calwell, as you would know, Mr Speaker, because you are my neighbour, has a highly diverse cultural and socioeconomic population.

I would like to bring to the attention of the House a very significant
event that took place in my electorate marking the fourth anniversary of the Fiji-Australia Day celebrations.

I rise tonight to present a petition to the House regarding the inclusion of the Modern Greek language in the national curriculum that is currently being developed by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. This petition is significant not only because it is the second bilingual petition to ever be presented to the federal parliament but also because its 19,067 signatures are part of an ongoing nationwide campaign to draw the House’s attention to the importance of Modern Greek as a language of cultural, historical and economic importance to the broader Australian community.