Speech by Marion Lau OAM at Chinese Community COVID-19 Vaccination Information Session
3 June 2021
This meeting is taking place on the land of diverse groups of traditional custodians across Victoria. I would like to pay my sincere respect to the elders past, present and emerging, and share the recognition of their continuous connection to the land, waters and culture, which I appreciate the custodians have never ceded.
I would also like to acknowledge President Jimmy Li, Professor Benjamin Cowie and Dr Steven Lu, who would be hosting and actively participating in the Q&A session, also a special thanks to my dear friend Aurora from the Health Department who has done very well and will help to answer questions that may or may not be pre-noted.
I want to offer my acknowledgement to all present members of CCCAV, their friends and their volunteer networks, and all other distinguished guests from other multicultural communities. It is very pleasing to see that we are not only servicing and providing support to the Chinese community. We are also extending support to other multicultural communities, because we are all one, we are all Australians, as I said before, regardless of the colour of our skins and where we came from. We are now here, and we are all Australians, we are all one.
I would like to acknowledge and commend CCCAV members and volunteers for all the hard work they put in to support and assist community members from the Chinese and multicultural background during this COVID period. There has been a lot of anxiety, anxiousness, anger, and fear in regard to the pandemic. But our volunteers, through CCCAV, have helped by providing their support. It is much appreciated.
There are so many mixed messages and much misinformation out there. It is most confusing to a lot of people including me. Someone like me cannot understand half the messages that have been produced by the department and the experts. I think we are very confused. Organizing information sessions like this will provide people with correct information and have their questions answered by experts Professor Cowie and Dr Lu. So, I am very pleased that CCCAV is active in doing this and I encourage you to do this more. You have my full support.
Just one last message from me, for those of you who have not had the opportunity to have the vaccination, please go and have it. It’s not only saving you but it’s saving other people’s lives as well, your friends, your relatives, your friend’s friends, everyone. So please, if you haven’t had your vaccination, please go and get it done. I am able to find a GP near me and have personally booked my vaccination appointment in a couple of days, so please have yours done. With those few words from me, have an informative and reassuring session and I know that it will be reassuring with experts like Professor Cowie and Dr Lu here to give you the correct information. And again, there is information in English and other languages.
Have a nice evening and session and I look forward to listening to your questions and answers. Thank you very much.
(Speech text transcribed by Nan Wang, Yan Ma and Jimmy Li)
