Thank you so much.
I'm absolutely delighted to be here, and I want to acknowledge Matt Gregg and the local member, Gabriel Ng, for the extraordinary contribution that they're making already to the Australian Parliament.
I was here in Box Hill North on Election Day last May, less than a year ago, handing out for Gabriel, who has had an impact already and is a champion of this local community.
So, can I say, I'm delighted to be with all of you to celebrate the Year of the Horse. Well done to all of you. Gung Hay Fat Choy. Chun Jie Kuai Le. Not as good as Gabriel, I'm sure, but I get points for effort.
So, can I say that, it is indeed a great honour. And right throughout Australia, we will be celebrating Chinese New Year over the coming fortnight and indeed beyond.
We'll keep going. On Sunday, I'll be in Sydney opening a museum, paying tribute to the contribution that Chinese-Australians have made as well in my home city of Sydney.
But here in Melbourne, the growth of this community, particularly around Box Hill and around this local area in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, has been quite extraordinary. And the contribution that you are making is incredible as well.
People come to Australia. With the exception of First Nations people, we're all either migrants or descendants of migrants. And I'm really proud that the Government that I lead looks like Australia, half men, half women, people of different backgrounds.
Someone with a surname like 'Albanese' as the leader of the House of Representatives as Prime Minister. My friend whose surname happens to be 'Wong' is Leader in the Senate.
People like Gabriel making a difference as well, with his background from Singapore, and his cultural background of which he is so proud.
But people have come to Australia to make a difference. And the Chinese-Australian community are driven by the same spirit that drives the rest of Australia.
Your entrepreneurial spirit, your contribution to small business and to the economy, your desire for your children to have a better life than the one that you have enjoyed as well is inspiration.
And the fact that here in Australia, we can celebrate culture from all around the world, but in particular in the next fortnight there will be a focus on Chinese culture.
And what that does is enrich all of us through the music and dancing, and I congratulate the wonderful musicians who we just saw here to open with their performance.
But the food, the language, the engagement, and the joy of life.
One of the things, I've been to the big festival in Box Hill a couple of times now, and there is nowhere you'd rather be than right there with people really celebrating in your way of, in this case, the Year of the Horse and different years.
I was born in the Year of the Rabbit. And so, we are all in Australia enriched by the fact that that culture is there.
And can I say as well that here in Australia, one of the things that we need to really be proud about are the fact that people who have come here who share so much in common, in spite of whatever our background might be, such as Australian values of looking after each other, the Australian values of family, the Australian values of education and training, the contribution that people are making to economy as well is something of which we can be so proud.
I have been really proud as well that as the Australian Prime Minister we are punching above our weight around the world. And one of the things that we have done, of course is to restore relations with China as well.
That is so important for our economy, but important as well for what we want in this region, which is peace and security in the region, that we share in our local region.
So, we've engaged with China to stabilise relations, we've engaged with ASEAN like never before.
We engage in the Pacific Island Forum, in APEC, in all of these as well, particularly in our region. And that has made a positive difference to Australia's standing in the world.
So, thank you for sharing your culture with me.
Thank you to the organisations for allowing us to be here with you as well. For a short period of time today, this celebration will be mirrored all around the world and in particular all around Australia because the Chinese Australian community have been here making contributions for a very long period of time.
There are artefacts that have been found recently in Western Australia that go back well before, well before the First Fleet sailed into Sydney Harbour, that acknowledged that many hundreds of years ago there was exploration and early contact between the Chinese and Indigenous Australians, going back in time.
Congratulations to everyone here.
Happy Year of the Horse.