Inspirational works by Australian school children at Harmony Day Poster Awards at Parliament House

From ECC Chair Mr Ted Quan

I was privileged today to be invited to Parliament House to join theMinister for Education in presenting the Award to students for the annualHarmony Day Poster competition.

There were 3,600 entries.In the attached photo, I am with the overall winner Ashneet Kaur Sethi fromSt Ives High School next to her winning entry.The theme of living and growing in harmony is such a valued notion in ourAustralian community right now.

The Minister, John Della Bosca, spoke of howpeople need to be taught to hate and to be prejudiced. Reflecting on the song "You've gotta be carefully taught" from Rodgers & Hammerstein's musical"South Pacific".

The organiser of this competition Ernie Friedlander had told of how hestarted the event to honour the German soldier who had the compassion tosave his life and his mother's life during WWII.

The risk taken by this German soldier and his kindness was not forgotten by the then 8 year old Ernie. I just wanted to share with all of you how inspired I was to see so many school children being encouraged to promote harmony... Not prejudice!