Mr TRI VO (Cabramatta) (18:03): First of all, I acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, the traditional custodians of this land, and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging. It is a bit late, but this is the only chance I have had to properly congratulate the member for Lake Macquarie on being unanimously appointed as the Speaker of this House. My congratulations also to Madam Deputy Speaker, the member for Wallsend; Mr Assistant Speaker, the member for Strathfield; and all of the other Temporary Speakers of this House. As a new member in this House, I feel that we are in a good place and in good hands. We have speakers who are diverse in all its meanings—backgrounds, heritage, gender, city and country. They are fair and are seen to be fair and independent. Do I get a tick?

The SPEAKER: Yes. You were doing alright anyway.

Mr TRI VO: I acknowledge all of the members, special guests in the gallery, family and friends, and members of the community. Today is 21 June 2023, in the middle of winter here in Sydney, Australia. Today is one of the shortest days in the Southern Hemisphere. Thinking of 21 June, I am reminded that this week in Australia we are celebrating Refugee Week; its theme is "Finding Freedom". About one month ago I asked the Government Whip's office and the member for Monaro to kindly allocate me a day to do my inaugural speech. I said I could do it quite soon if required. I understand that we have quite a number of new MPs this time and therefore the allocation process may take a little longer. I was allocated today and I was so happy, realising that today is part of Refugee Week, as I was also a boat refugee. That is something I am very proud of.

In a lot of my CVs I would state that I was a refugee, a boat person, as if that is one of my qualifications—one of my work experiences or life experiences. I think to myself sometimes that you don't choose your path, a special position or special date, but the path, position or date chooses you. The only complaint I have is that tonight is the same night as the State of Origin Game 2. I have had the privilege over the past month or so to hear so many excellent inaugural speeches by new members. The standards of speeches have gone higher and higher and higher. Sometimes, being a new MP in this Chamber feels like going back to high school or university. Question times are more like high school.

Being new MPs, we look around, guessing the other person or persons in the room, as if we are looking at the cover of a book and guessing the story in the book. But I quickly realised that we cannot judge a book by its cover. Through these inaugural speeches I realised all of the members are in many ways exceptional leaders in their local area, and in many ways deserve to be here. This reminds me of a quote I learnt in high school by Thomas Edison:

Genius is 1 per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration.

Those inaugural speeches have been informative, educational, funny, entertaining, emotional, inspirational and much more. I hope to have a combination of all of that, to live up to the standards of this House so far and to please the difficult MPs and the special guests here in the gallery today—I have my tissues ready. I am also advised that this will be the only time that MPs will be well behaved, will not interrupt me or interject on me. What I can say from the outset is, I may not be the best speech maker or the best speech writer, but I do have a real story to tell you and this House. My story is not unique but is quite common in south-western Sydney and in many other major cities in Australia, America, Canada, France, England, New Zealand and other free nations.

My father, Mr Cuong Vo, a former President of the Vietnamese Community in Australia and New South Wales and current Chair of the Vietnamese Former Pilots Association of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, is here today. He was a helicopter pilot, trained in America for about two years and participated in the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975. In March 1975, about one month before the end of the Vietnam War, his helicopter, with about 14 people on board, was shot down in central Vietnam near Da Nang. He was imprisoned as a political prisoner for a total of about seven years. After coming out of prison, like many others in the country, we knew we could not live under the Vietnamese Communist regime, and so we planned our escape from Vietnam.

Nearly one year passed, and towards the end of 1982 our parents planned to escape Vietnam. They would not tell us young kids, just in case we would unintentionally reveal it to the authorities and they would capture us. Our parents would tell us that we were going on a holiday to visit our grandparents. Us kids were quite excited: "We are going on a holiday?"

However, in our first attempt, in September 1982, we did not succeed and my mother and my three older brothers, all under 18 at the time, were captured by the Vietnamese authorities. I remember we were sunk in mud, sometimes to waist deep. Also, I could remember vividly the sounds of the gunshot to the sky to alert and threaten us before they captured us. Lucky for us, all the grown‑up men over 18 years old in our family, including my father, left the scene before we were captured, so my mum and us four boys only stayed in the police cells for one night and were released home. They took all my mother's gold and money before releasing us.

Soon thereafter we planned for another escape, and this time we were successful. This time, in 9 December 1982, my family—which consisted of my parents, the four boys, including me, and one uncle—escaped Vietnam in a small boat of about 128 people. The boat was 12 metres long and three metres wide. We went on a journey for about four days and four nights. We did not have a lot of food but mostly drank water, and there was not a lot of water going around. During the nights we would hear people praying to Jesus and Buddha and whichever God would help us get to the shores of freedom. I am told by my mother, An Ly, who is here today, that there were many dolphins that followed the boat. She believed this was a sign of luck or at least safety from the sharks. She also told me there were heavy rains and dangerous storms, and the boat was nearly broken.

At night we saw an oil rig and waited until the morning before doing anything. In the morning my father jumped down and swam across about 100 metres from the boat to the oil rig. When he got to the other side, all the people on our boat clapped and cheered. I can clearly remember this moment of hope. He spoke to the people there inside the oil rig. Then a big Dutch commercial ship came by and we were very lucky to be rescued and taken to Malaysia. I consider we were the lucky ones, as we have heard and read on Google the many stories of other leaking and rickety boats drifting in the high seas for weeks, sometimes months. We have heard many stories of pirates who robbed or violently assaulted and sexually assaulted the innocent people on board, killed them and threw them overboard. We also have heard of starving people resorting to cannibalism, eating the flesh of dead humans on board to survive, especially on boats that drifted for weeks or months.

Between 1975 to 1995 the number of boat people leaving Vietnam and arriving safely in another country totalled almost 800,000. This is just by boat. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, between 200,000 to 400,000 boat people died at sea. We would never know the exact numbers and the exact names as the Vietnamese authorities would never provide the information of the people who tried to escape the country. Just based on these figures, this means that, for every two or three people who arrived safely by boat, at least one person had died. This means that choosing to be a boat refugee is a very risky and dangerous decision to make. You would be very lucky to be alive, safe and physically and psychologically normal.

When we were rescued on the Dutch commercial ship, I can remember we were given food, congee and water, and kids were given condensed milk. I felt the love between human beings again. We did not receive this from our own people, or at least not from the authorities in power. We were taken to Bidong Island, a refugee place in Malaysia. I can remember the waterfalls, the beaches, the endless grass fields and the plants, and all I can remember was happiness and feeling safe. Even though it was a modest refugee area, my memories were as though we were all in paradise. Sometimes when I eat instant noodles or drink condensed milk, my subconscious mind remembers the time of me being on the ship that rescued us and at the refugee camp in Malaysia.

After about two months in the refugee camp, we were taken by boat to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. We then flew to Australia in February 1983, which is about 40 years ago. I was six years old at the time. We were welcomed with open arms. We were treated with the love and respect that we could not find in our own motherland. We stayed at Endeavour hostel in Maroubra in the eastern parts of Sydney. The charitable organisations, such as The Smith Family, St Vincent de Paul and the Salvation Army gave us necessities like clothes, kitchenware, wardrobes, toys and so much help. Sometimes it was hard to find our sizes and the clothes would have been a few sizes bigger, but we were always so happy and so grateful.

Since our hostel was in the eastern side of Sydney, like many other refugees we settled in Marrickville, a suburb not so far from the hostel and which has a community similar to us and shops that sold food and groceries that we needed. I went to public schools, both primary and high school, in Marrickville. When I was in year 1 and year 2, my friends, also former refugees, and I would draw pictures of boats on high seas, soldiers and guns et cetera. Other children, like my own children right now, would draw animals, parks, houses, cars, planes and toys. However, deep inside me, I thought I was very lucky, and our stories were always more adventurous and interesting.

I did not go to preschool or kindergarten but started school in the middle of year 1. I repeated year 2, and to this day I do not even know if this was due to me having learning difficulties or if it was because a classmate of mine unfortunately got run over by a car and was in hospital for a few months, so I needed to repeat with him to keep him company and to recover. I actually excelled in class after this—from always being at the bottom of the class to one of the top students in the class. During my adolescence—my boys will like this—we watched a lot of Hong Kong movies, including Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Fat, Andy Lau and Bruce Lee. I told them I would mention Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. They really like it. I told them I would make a speech and mention a lot of important people; they were not interested. They were more interested in Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.

At the time I idolised Bruce Lee and respected him for revealing and teaching his martial arts to the Western world and for being so successful in the Western film industry. During my prime—with more hair, of course—some people thought I looked like Bruce Lee. But many more people thought I looked more like the comedian in the filmThey Call Me Bruce? During the first few years of high school, my grades dropped. Therefore, my dad asked a family friend named Mr Pat, a former English teacher, to teach me, mostly English. At that time I was not interested in learning. Mr Pat told me a quote: "I can walk a horse, but I cannot make it drink." I did not understand it at the time, but I think he meant he could try to teach me but he could not make me learn. I still was not much interested in learning.

The weeks went by. He was very patient. He told me another quote: "A pen is mightier than a sword." He explained why. That interested me a little bit more. He also sang songs by Elvis Presley. Now, that interested me. From this point, my wife, My Linh, who is here today, who is a very good singer, might think that is probably where I got my karaoke singing skills from. From then on, I studied hard and listened to everything he said. I also found my love of learning and reading books again. My parents' words then changed from "Remember to study more" to "Don't study too much, son. Remember to take care of yourself too, okay?" I got into Sydney University and studied double degrees—a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Laws. In class the students were more interested in doing the summer clerks and getting into the top five companies. During the holidays I was more interested in reading my self‑help books or psychology books. At the time I was so fascinated by these self‑help books and the human mind. The human mind controls everything in your body and also controls how we interact with people.

When I started finding work in 2001, I started out in Bankstown for one year and then two years in Fairfield. This was when I truly used my law studies and applied it to the real world. I learnt so much; there were so many interesting cases in south-western Sydney, and especially in the Fairfield city area. In 2004, at the age of 26 years old, I started my own law practice in Canley Heights, which is near Cabramatta. At the time, I moved there because of work and the love of the area and its people. At the time, I moved there not to have the letters "MP" next to the name "Tri Vo", but purely to have the name "Tri Vo" next to the area "Cabramatta"—its people, its communities and its vibrant culture and activities. This was just after the time when many people were moving their families out of Cabramatta, trying not to mention that name or be associated with anything to do with its communities.

Shortly after that I became the youngest president of the Vietnamese Community in NSW, at the age of 28, and then the youngest president of the Vietnamese Community in Australia at the time, at the age of 35. My love for the community and the local area continued. I joined the Labor Party in 2010, held many executive positions in the party and became the Cabramatta branch secretary in 2017. All of my three children were born in our local Fairfield Hospital. They are here today. In 2019 I was number 10 on the upper House ticket for the Labor Party. In 2021 I was on the ticket running for Fairfield council. However, many people knew my aim and love were always to represent Cabramatta.

Sometimes I think, after 40 long years since arriving in Australia as a boat refugee, I—or we—have finally reached our destination. We have found the freedom to think, to speak, to believe, to participate and to choose the paths and the political party we want—the Labor Party for me, of course. I am so privileged and honoured to be the first MP in the New South Wales Parliament to have Vietnamese heritage. New South Wales is the most populous State in the country. This House is the people's House, the oldest Parliament in Australia, the place where democracy in this great nation started. During my time in this Parliament I want to be a voice for my local area, to be a strong advocate for the issues that really matter in my area and to try to get the necessary funding where it is needed the most.

During my election campaign I heard so many suggestions for our Fairfield Hospital—suggestions from many members and residents, including from the current councillors and mayor. I commend the Labor Party for realising that Fairfield Hospital needs the necessary funding. We do not need to be like Liverpool Hospital, Westmead or the Royal North Shore Hospital, but we need to provide the essential services necessary to help local residents and save lives. As I said before, I went to public schools. I am a beneficiary of our public education system; therefore, I will always advocate to help our public schools and give every child and student in this State the same opportunity, regardless of their postcode, their parents' backgrounds and their personal situation. We will help them be the best that God has created them to be.

Some of my concerns for the short term are hospitals, schools, communities, small businesses, housing affordability, cost of living, building infrastructure and maximising the potential in south-western Sydney, especially with the coming of the second airport—a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For the long term, I will continue to introduce people and the public to the positive things in Cabramatta, such as our diverse communities all living relatively harmoniously, like a mini-world reduced to a small area—an example of multiculturalism at its best. I will introduce the vibrant cultural activities, the delicious food, the people with so many stories ready to share with you and the world, and many, many more reasons. If that does not work, maybe the last thing you could try is to come and visit Cabramatta. Tri Vo, the State member for Cabramatta—he seems okay. He might even be good! I have only 10 minutes left—we have to watch the Origin after this!

I admire Pope Saint John Paul II, who died in 2005, was beatified on 1 May 2011 and canonised on 27 April 2014. By pure chance, two weeks after he was canonised and became a saint, my second son, Christian, two months old at the time, was baptised. We gave him the saint name John Paul. During the time that Pope Saint John Paul II died, got beatified and canonised, I had opportunities to read, watch and know more about him. Not only was he a great religious leader; he knew how to apply it practically to the real world. I give an example that may be relevant to us now, this year. Nearly 40 years ago, on 29 November 1986, Pope John Paul II was in Alice Springs, Australia. He addressed the crowd as follows:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

It is a great joy for me to be here today in Alice Springs and to meet so many of you, the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders of Australia. I want to tell you right away how much the Church esteems and loves you, and how much she wishes to assist you in your spiritual and material needs.

He said a few other things, and then he went on to say:

Your culture, which shows the lasting genius and dignity of your race, must not be allowed to disappear. Do not think that your gifts are worth so little that you should no longer bother to maintain them. Share them with each other and teach them to your children. Your songs, your stories, your paintings, your dances, your languages, must never be lost.

On 3 May this year, 2023, we had a seminar run by New South Wales Parliament on making inaugural speeches, and there was a great book suggested to us to read titledOn Speaking Well by Peggy Noonan. She wrote some of President Ronald Reagan's speeches. On the same day, on 3 May 2023, I went to three bookstores in the city. They said they had to order it from overseas and it might take one month. So I could not get the book, but I found a book that I had wanted to buy for the past 30 years. The book was calledThe Road Less Travelled by Scott Peck.

More importantly, the other thing I got was that by pure chance I ran into Stan Grant, for my first and only time in real life. This was before he stepped down fromQ+A, on 22 May 2023. At one of the bookstores near the QVB he was quickly looking for a book, and his body language told me he was in a rush and not comfortable with people recognising him. I asked the person at the bookstore whether that was Stan Grant and they confirmed, "Yes, yes". I went over and told him how much I liked his work and to please keep up all his wonderful work. I then asked him whether he supported the yes campaign for the First Nations Voice to Parliament, and he said yes. I told him that I will also be voting yes. He said, "Thank you, brother". I said I will try to encourage others to vote yes, and he said, "Thank you, brother" again. I knew he did not know who I was so, before I went, I introduced myself as "Tri Vo, the new member for Cabramatta".

There you go—my answer to the yes campaign was answered. But soon after, I asked myself the question of why he said, "Thank you, brother" twice. I think there may be four possible reasons. Possibly (a) after just a few months campaigning and being in State politics, I was looking much older and so he referred to me as around his brother's age; or (b) it is just a way that people refer to each other, just like the Aussie way of saying, "Thanks, mate"; or (c) it was like when Saint John Paul II referred to the crowd as all brothers and sisters in the eyes of God, as I referred to earlier; or (d) by acknowledging the Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders, I had been accepted into their country and treated as a brother. I like to think the answer is (c) and (d). In the eyes of God, we are all brothers and sisters, and I have also been accepted into their country. Aboriginal Australians have lived in Australia for more than 65,000 years. Therefore, Australia is home to the oldest continuing living culture on Earth. This is something we should always preserve, cherish and celebrate.

I could not get here without the help of so many people. I would like to thank my wife, My Linh, and children Brandon, Christian, and Evelyn; my parents, Mr Cuong Vo and Mrs An Ly; my brothers Tien and Darren and their families; and Mai Luu and Amanda Vo. I would like to thank Nick Lalich, the former State member for Cabramatta, who gave me so much valuable advice and guided me through the way. He was a longstanding and respected politician in our area. I thank Del Bennett, a former councillor of the Fairfield City Council, and Guy Zangari, a former State member for Fairfield, for their valuable support. I thank Councillor George Barcha, who helped manage the campaign, and Councillor Kien Ly and Councillor Carmen Lazar, who are all here today. Also, I thank the Hon. Jason Clare, the Hon. Chris Bowen, the Hon. Tony Sheldon, who all helped me during the campaign, and Anoulack Chanthivong for his valuable advice.

I thank the many volunteers, including Daniel Griffiths, Ang Phour, Darren Vo, Tien Vo, Phuoc Nguyen and Lan Nguyen, Mickey Ngo, Donson Phetrasy, Joseph Huang, former councillor Sera Yilmaz, former councillor Adrian Wong, Domenic Leonello, Grace Siciliano, Alain David, former councillor Nhan Tran, My Tyack, Anh Ngoc Dang and Huy Tran, who unfortunately is not here with us anymore, but I believe his twin sister is in the gallery today. Huy Tran was always very supportive of me. I also thank many others. I thank our leader Chris Minns and Deputy Premier Prue Car for their leadership and vision. I would also like to thank Rhys Patton from the NSW Labor head office, and especially Bob Nanva and Dom Ofner for being quiet operators but very effective, making decisions based—mostly—on science, facts and evidence.

I also thank the many organisations and communities supporting me during the campaign. I thank Andrew Nguyen and all the members of the Labor Party's Cabramatta branch; Bountham Vongsaya from the Lao Community; Walter Robinson of the Cabra-Vale Diggers club; Anh Le from Viet Tan; Decheng Sun and the Australian Workers' Union in New South Wales; Jennifer Tran and the Chin Lien Chinese Association Incorporated; James Chan and Vincent Kong from the Australian Chinese Buddhist Society; Sawathey Ek from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations; members of the Vietnamese Community in Australia - New South Wales and its community radios and media; the Assyrian National Council of Australia; Hung Ly from the Australian Chinese Teochew Association; Davy Nguyen, and many others. I thank everyone helping me along the way—so many to name all, but I know who you are, and I think of you.

People in the area might say they are proud of me, but I want to let everyone in the gallery know that I am so, so very proud of you all—your stories, your ideals, your courage, your sacrifices, your resilience, your hard work, and what you have all done for your families, communities and your area. You, your families, your communities and your members are the reasons why I will always continue to work for the local community and for our local area. This House, the people's House, is your House as much as it is my House. We will always welcome you. This country, Australia, is the best country in the world. We have been calling Australia and this wonderful State of New South Wales our home, and will continue to do so. We will continue to contribute and treat this country and State as our home. Finally, I want to acknowledge and thank God for God's blessings, and grace to this world and to this country. Thank you for listening.