COMMUNITY RECOGNITION STATEMENT

Mr ANOULACK CHANTHIVONG (Macquarie Fields):18:—Play together and live in harmony. That is the message at the heart of the Macarthur Multicultural Children’s Festival, which was held for the second consecutive year in Koshigaya Park, Campbelltown in August.

The Macarthur event follows in the footsteps of the long-running and successful Canterbury-Bankstown festival, which was the brainchild of Thuat Van Nguyen.

A Vietnamese refugee who arrived in Australia in the 1980s, Van Nguyen had the vision that children who played together lived together in harmony.

This same vision is reflective of the Macarthur event – bringing children, families and community together to celebrate our rich diversity.

I congratulate Festival Director Brian Laul – and everyone involved in the Macarthur Multicultural Children’s Festival – on delivering a community celebration to foster harmony in our community.