Terence Quick, Greece's deputy Foreign Affairs minister, had meetings in Canberra today (31 May 2017) with the Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop, federal minister for Industry, Innovation and Science Arthur Sinodinos, the leader of the opposition Bill Shorten, shadow foreign affairs minister senator Penny Wong, senator Nick Xenophon and Greek-background MPs Julia Banks, Maria Vamvakinou and Steve Georganas. Mr Quick attended Question Time where he was pleasantly surprised by Chisholm MP Julia Banks (Lib) who welcomed him in Greek! A press release from Ms Banks office states the following: "Julia Banks MP, Federal Member for Chisholm, together with Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop hosted today the Deputy Foreign Minister of Greece Mr Terens-Nikolaos Quick and Greek Ambassador to Australia, Ekaterini Xagorari, at the Parliament of Australia. Ms Banks formally welcomed Deputy Foreign Minister Quick and his delegation to Parliament during Question Time, where she rose and welcomed Mr Quick in his native tongue Greek as a preamble to a question to Minister for Social Services the Honourable Christian Porter MP. "I would like to warmly welcome you here today. The Greek Diaspora is very important here in Australia" Ms Banks said in Greek. With a proud Greek migrant heritage, Ms Banks is the Chair of the Australia/Greece Parliamentary Group and the Federal Member for Chisholm - the third most culturally diverse electorate in Australia. Joined by cross party Parliamentary colleagues at an afternoon reception, Ms Banks was pleased to share with Mr Quick and Ms Xagorari the significant contribution of Greek Australians to the Chisholm community and the considerable Hellenic contribution to life in Melbourne and across Australia. In particular, the electorate of Chisholm is home to a significant concentration of Greek-Australians (by birth and by ancestry). In Chisholm, there are 3497 people who declared they were born in Greece and a total of 9691 people who identify as being of Greek ancestry. Furthermore, in total there are 8142 Greek speakers in Chisholm."
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