Fairfield Showground, Sydney
In 1977, a small wooden vessel threaded its way through the Gulf of Thailand and the waters to our north before finding landfall near Darwin.
The boat's cargo:
* Thirty one people in search of a better life.
The boat's name:
* “Tu Do”... Freedom.
Friends, this land tells us many stories.
From the world's oldest living culture to those who came on the first wooden boats of the First Fleet, to today's newest migrants coming from war-torn Africa.
But perhaps one of the most remarkable is the story of the Vietnamese.
Vietnamese migration was particularly challenging for us because it was the first broad-scale migration from Asia since the gold rush.
I don't want to minimise the challenges you sometimes faced.
But overwhelmingly, Australians opened their doors and opened their hearts.
Now, 38 years after the first Vietnamese came to Australia, this community is seeing its pioneers grow old.
Its children succeed and prosper in all aspects of national life.
Its grandchildren speak in broad Aussie accents.
But one thing that does not change is Tet.
A time for visiting loved ones, honouring ancestors and giving gifts.
A time to forget the worries of the year just past and to embrace the possibilities of the year ahead.
A time to remember your old homeland from the safety and prosperity of the new.
Friends, you came from a sad and difficult past.
And sought a place to build a new and brighter future.
You looked out across those seas to a land under the Southern Cross.
A place that celebrated freedom in its laws and intuitions in the same way you treasured freedom in your hearts.
Friends, so many Vietnamese refugees came to these shores with only the clothes on their backs.
Yet you did not come empty-handed.
You came with hope to this land of new beginnings.
Hope, ambition and high expectations that honoured the welcome offered by your new home.
You matched opportunity with effort.
Citizenship with commitment.
Acceptance with goodwill.
So four decades since the journey began, we are here as civic leaders to share this festival and to say: thank you.
We enriched by your culture.
Strengthened by your hard work.
And blessed by your faith in the nation you chose and made your own.
Happy New Year!
May the Year of the Snake bring happiness and prosperity to you and all those you love.