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,

as Prime Minister Scott Morrison Attends 32nd

Annual Ethnic Business Awards

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 Here is the story of Dr Ved Berani. When Dr. Ved Berani told his family and friends that he had decided to travel to Australia to complete an MBA at Monash University, they all thought he was crazy. He had ranked first at the University of Bombay in 2000 and was recognized as the most distinguished dental student amongst three dental colleges. Nonetheless, Dr Berani boarded the plane with an unwavering will to win. Landing the graveyard shift at 7 Eleven for $11/hour was a far cry from the comfortable lifestyle he was used to back home – but juggling full time studies with work to make ends meet only strengthened Ved’s resolve to succeed. In 2004, after completing his MBA and dental license certificate Dr. Berani took over a disintegrating business from a retiring dentist and within a short amount of time, transformed it into a revolutionary, technologically innovative, one of a kind dentistry practice. Healthy Smiles Dental Group now employs over 35 full time employees, partners with BUPA-Dental corporation and is set for rapid expansion. 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.