Multicultural community facilities
Brad BATTIN (Berwick) (17:24): (875) I rise with an adjournment for the Minister for Multicultural Affairs in the other place, and the action I ask is for appropriate funding for a multicultural centre out in the City of Casey or Cardinia. The Clyde Malayalee group have started a petition to try and get a great multicultural facility, because as we know, those members out in those growth corridors have seen remarkable change in the people from the community, where we have got a lot of new Australians who have come across from India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, the Philippines. And the group functions that they have put my twenty-first to shame. They have hundreds if not a thousand-plus people who come along and celebrate community and what community really is. The events they have are dancing, celebrating, keeping the young people involved, passing their skills across to the next generation and ensuring they do things in their mother tongue – all things that are essential to ensuring a collaborative community that works together.
I know – I am not saying obviously for this – that all members from all sides of this place love going to these community events, because we get to celebrate the best things that are brought to our country from other nations, including the food; we know how great the food is. But it is also the collaborative nature they have in building stronger, united communities, which also has a great impact on crime prevention here in our state by ensuring that the young people have a focus moving forward.
I would love to have the minister come out and join me. We can dance out there and celebrate as we get the funding for a new facility out in the Clyde area to hold something like a thousand people so we can have some great functions.