Dr Tien Nguyen - People of Australia ambassador

Australia was built from scratch, you know, with immigrants, with
convicts from England and then over time, you know, different ethnic groups came to
Australia to help build the country.
I came here 31 years ago as a refugee, and after getting back my qualifications, and
working as a GP since 1984, I've always been involved with the community, and doing
things to help the Vietnamese to integrate successfully into Australian society.
At first I set up an organisation to help, legally and financially, the hundreds of
thousands of asylum seekers in the late 80s stranded in refugee camps in South East Asia
and Hong Kong, and then I moved on to be involved in the local Vietnamese community, and
if you ask me "What was the most satisfying things I have done?" it is that I
spear-headed the fundraising to build our Vietnamese community and cultural centre in
Bonnyrigg.
And over, you know, five years or so, I raised probably more than a million dollars, and
now it came up really nice, really gorgeous.
And it's a place where 90 different organisations, under the umbrella of the Vietnamese
community, have a place to meet, to have a different activity and I am really glad that
we had it up and running.
To me, multiculturalism is simple.
Multiculturalism is all people of all ethnic backgrounds, cultural backgrounds, religious
backgrounds, political backgrounds even, who can live together in a common society, in
harmony, in peace and support each other, trying to understand each other and being
tolerant of each other.
And together they will build a great society.