A Celebration of Diversity as Prime Minister Scott Morrison Attends 32nd Annual Ethnic Business Awards

More than 200 people from many diverse backgrounds, headed by the Prime Minister the Honourable Scott Morrison,
along with a number of distinguished guests and dignitaries gathered on Friday 11th of February at the Four Seasons
Hotel in Sydney to celebrate the 32nd anniversary of the Ethnic Business Awards. The Honourable Anthony Albanese MP Leader of the opposition was also in attendance.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison spoke on the importance of recognising both migrant and Indigenous success stories,
saying: “The migrant story of Australia is extraordinary. But what I love about these awards is they don’t just connect the migrant story of Australia, but they connect the Indigenous story of Australia as well. And these are the things that we celebrate together as one country with cultures that go back over 60,000 years”.

The night was a celebration of Success Against the Odds and featured stories from twelve finalists across three
categories. Namely the Indigenous In Business Category, Small Business Category and the Henry Ngai Medium to Large Business Category.

The Henry Ngai Medium to Large Business Category was presented by Leader of the Opposition, The Honourable
Anthony Albanese. Mr Albanese stated “our greatest strength as a nation is when we come together. Our greatest
strength is our people. Whilst we have great natural assets, it’s the people who either have inhabited this land as part of the oldest continuous civilisation on the planet or those people who have either come here themselves as migrants or are the descendants.” The winner in this category was Josef Chromy of the JAC Group in Tasmania.

The Small Business Category was presented by The Honourable Alex Hawke, Minister for Immigration, Citizenship,
Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs. Minister Hawke said “The prime minister is right, we are the most successful
multicultural country in the world. We successfully integrate more people, from more backgrounds than anywhere else
in the world.” This year’s winner was Dr Ved Berani from Healthy Smiles Dental Group in Victoria.

The Indigenous in Business Category was presented by The Honourable Ken Wyatt, Minister for Indigenous Australians.
Minister Wyatt stated: “we have a great future in this nation. Diversity is one of the best things we have. It’s not only
amongst multicultural people, in Aboriginal society there are 250 different language groups across this geographic nation of ours, and that diversity is seeing people flourish. ” Ray Pratt from DICE in the Northern Territory took out the win in this category.

A new award, The Global Harmony Award was presented on the night for the first time. The award was also created by
Founder, Chairman and Major Sponsor of the Awards, Mr Joseph Assaf AO. This is a first of its kind and was created to
honour outstanding business people who are making extraordinary contributions to not only their local communities but to Australia as a whole and just as importantly, to the rest of the world. This was awarded to the late Henry Ngai of ABC Tissue and was accepted by his son, Sunny Ngai.

“The Global Harmony Award is inspired by Henry Ngai’s philanthropy and vision. It is a recognition of the kind of
generosity and social awareness that can be bred by success – and which is such an important component of the bridges that we build to the world”- Joseph Assaf.

The Ethnic Business Awards, now in their 32nd year, celebrate diversity, multiculturalism, and success against the odds.
SBS will be featuring the awards on Saturday 26th February from 16:30 until 18:30. It will also be televised on Thursday
24th February at 15:00. The Awards will also be televised on NITV and Aurora Community Channel.