HCC Year of the Fire Horse Lunar New Year Banquet in Sydney’s Chinatown, 27 Feb 2026

Haymarket Chamber of Commerce held its 2026 Year of the Fire Horse Lunar New Year Banquet at the Eight Restaurant in Sydney’s Chinatown on Friday, 27 February 2026 which was attended by close to 400 members and friends of the Chamber.

We would like to thank all members and guests for making the evening such a success and an enjoyable one, in particular the following special guests who were warmly welcomed to the banquet by our Chamber President Vincent Lim and members of our Executive Committee: Mr Zhi Soon MP, Federal Member for Banks, representing the Prime Minister of Australia, the Hon. Anthony Albanese MP; the Hon Angus Taylor MP, Leader of the Opposition in the House of Representatives; Senator for NSW, Senator Andrew Bragg; Mr. Jason Yat-Sen Li MP, Assistant Speaker NSW Legislative Assembly and Member for Strathfield, representing NSW Premier the Hon. Chris Minns MP and NSW Minister for Multiculturalism, the Hon. Stephen Kamper MP; the Hon. Damien Tudehope MLC, Leader of the Opposition, NSW Legislative Council, also representing Ms Kellie Sloane MP, NSW Leader of the Opposition; Mr. Alex Greenwich MP, Member for Sydney; Ms Jenny Leong MP, Member for Newtown; Mr Mark Coure MP, NSW Shadow Minister for Multiculturalism, Roads, and South-Western Sydney;  Mr Matt Cross MP, Member for Davidson; the Rt Hon Clover Moore AO, Lord Mayor of the City of Sydney, Cr Jess Miller, Deputy Lord Mayor of the City of Sydney; Councillors Sylvie Ellsmore, Lyndon Gannon, Robert Kok and  Matthew Thompson of the City of Sydney; Cr Barbara Ward of the Ku-ring-gai Council; Cr Dr Felix Lo of the City of Ryde Council; Cr Nancy Liu JP of the Georges River Council; His Excellency Mr Wang Yu, Consul-General of the People’s Republic of China to Australia; His Excellency Dr Siswo Pramono, Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to Australia; His Excellency Mr. Pendekar Muda Leonard Sondakh, Consul-General of the Republic of Indonesia to Australia.

We would also like to express our gratitude and special thanks to Uncle Michael West of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council for his Welcome to Country; our MC Valerie Khoo; Millon Wines and Chateau Maine Gazin as our wine partners; our event partners The Eight, Community Bank Darling Square, Caption by Hyatt Central Sydney, Pak Hok Kung Fu, Siam Dance Studio, Suara Indonesia Dance, and the most talented young musicians from the Australian-Chinese Young Cultural Ambassadors (ACYCA) and they were Kaley Winata (erhu), Yuewen Gao (erhu), Melanie Su (bamboo flute), Bella Wanyue Vuong (guzheng). And to all of you who donated prizes to our raffle draw, a big thank you and in recognition, we have displayed your respective logos on the evening’s banquet program. Part of the proceeds of the raffle draw will also be donated to The Kids’ Cancer Project.

Our heartiest congratulations to this year’s most deserving winners of the Haymarket Chamber of Commerce’s 2026 Year of the Fire Horse Awards:

• Project of the Year was awarded to Haymarket Alliance led by Brad Chan for Neon Playground 2.0 festival of art, lights, music, community, and food.
• Member of the Year was awarded to Anthony Ho of Basalt Studio, in recognition of his design work for the lunar new year installations on Dixon Street in 2024 (Wood Dragon), 2025 (Wood Snake) and 2026 (Fire Horse).
• Community Organisation of the Year was awarded to the Museum of Chinese in Australia (MOCA), represented by its Chair, Daphne Lowe Kelley, and CEO Peter Cai.
• Community Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to the Hon Henry Tsang OAM in recognition of his more than 50 years of contribution and service to the community.

This most enjoyable community new year celebration was also reported in our local Chinese media 2CR and 1688.com.au. An English translation of the 2CR report may be found here on the News page of our Chamber website. Below are some photos taken by our photographers at the banquet.