5 May 2015

Perth Greek Glendi Festival

Peter gave the following speech in the WA Parliament on Tuesday 5 May 2015:

I rise tonight to congratulate the organisers of the extremely successful Perth Glendi Greek Festival held in Russell Square, Northbridge on 26 April this year.

The Perth Glendi is a celebration of Hellenic culture as celebrated here in Western Australia. On the day, of course, there was plenty of singing and Greek dancing, wonderful food and sweets to sample, plate smashing and all things that are good in Hellenic culture. But the day was so much more than that. There were thousands and thousands of people in attendance; some people said 10 000 and some said 20 000. It was impossible to judge the exact size of the crowd. When we looked at that crowd we immediately realised what a wonderful culturally diverse place we live in and how harmonious to have people of different cultures and faiths and religions come together in this city of Perth in Western Australia and live together.

Of course, those thousands of people were not made up of just people of Hellenic origin; they were people from all walks of life—from every ethnic, cultural and religious group in Western Australia, including our first peoples and there was a wonderful welcome to country to kick off the event. Even some of the plain Anglo Celtics were allowed to come along; in fact, they probably made up the majority of the crowd that enjoyed the day and I noticed that they took part very fervently in the world’s biggest Zorba dance that was held as part of the festival.

These events do not come together by accident; they come together through hard work by dedicated volunteers. I would like to congratulate the Hellenic Community of Western Australia, which took the lead on this with its very dedicated and inspirational president, Gary Mitchell, at the helm, as well as the Cypriot Community of Western Australia with its tireless and very energetic president, Zak Chrisostomou. Those two organisations led the charge, and particular credit must go to the organiser of the event, Peter Economis, who brought together that band of volunteers to make the day a reality. Without the work of these organisations and these people, the event would not have happened and people would not have been able to celebrate everything that is great about thisrich, culturally diverse and tolerant society that we live in.

Another person who deserves great credit for the organisation and the running of the event is my colleague and friend the member for Perth, Eleni Evangel, as well as her staff, Margaret-Anne Manifis and Milena Djurasinovic, who put in an enormous effort to make this event a reality. I would also like to thank my staff, Brent Fleeton, Tom Murphy and Julie Barrett, who willingly gave of their time to make sure the event came together. There were lots of corporate sponsors, and I thank them for their support in getting behind this event that had not been held for many, many years.

I thank also Lotterywest and the City of Perth, which put their funds in to make it a reality. I hope those sponsors got good value out of it, certainly those who attended the day, and the Lord Mayor, Rt Hon Lisa Scaffidi. They would have seen the energy and the vibrancy. A lot of my parliamentary colleagues also came along, led by the Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Interests, Hon Mike Nahan, to show that we let even people of American heritage into these events! The Attorney General, Michael Mischin, and my colleagues in the other place, Andrea Mitchell, Michael Sutherland, Ian Britza and Margaret Quirk were also there. I apologise to anyone I did not notice or did not mention. There were many people there, and it was a wonderful event.

Well done to everyone for coming together and putting it on.

Mr President, tonight I would like to call for this event to not happen every now and again. We should not lose the vitality, energy and enthusiasm that were gathered from the event. It should become one more annual event on Perth’s calendar of festivals and social events. I encourage all those organisations and all those corporate sponsors that backed this event this year to come together and make it an annual event so that we can recognise that people of Hellenic origin—Greeks, Cypriots and people from Asia Minor and other places—came to this country, and to this state and city, more than 100 years ago and made it their home. They are proud Australians; they are proud Western Australians, but they continue on with their Hellenic culture. They celebrate the Hellenic culture and they welcome everyone else into that culture so that they can get a taste of it and experience it as well.

If members in this place did not go along on 26 April and if people outside of this place did not manage to get along on 26 April, I hope that they get the opportunity to attend future festivals. As I said, congratulations to the organisers and I hope this becomes an annual event.