Greenvale Electorate Cultural Events

31 August, 2023

Iwan WALTERS (Greenvale) (09:58): It is a pleasure to rise to update the house on a very busy few weeks in and around Greenvale. Last Friday I was really grateful to join with the Minister for Corrections and member for Northern Metropolitan in the other place and the federal member for Calwell at St George Chaldean Catholic Parish community centre. I want to thank Father Hani and all of the team at St George for the extraordinary work that they do in supporting the community, particularly from Iraq, who have arrived in Australia as refugees, often having suffered religious persecution, and for the work that they do in supporting that community. I give a particular acknowledgement to the Australian Chaldean Federation and the Australian Chaldean league for the work that they also do to support the Chaldean community in my community.

Recently as well I had the privilege of celebrating Onam at Broadmeadows town hall, and I thank Jesu Jacob and all of the volunteers who worked so hard through Ente Keralam to make these celebrations of Malayali culture and tradition just so happy and so welcoming to so many people across the community. I am really delighted the Victorian government was able to support that fantastic event with an investment of $20,000.

In concluding, I want to also thank the committee of the Craigieburn War Memorial and remembrance site for the work that they do. It was a pleasure to join them at Vietnam veterans memorial day a fortnight ago, and I thank them.