David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker Scott, I take this opportunity to congratulate you on your election to your role.

I rise today to congratulate the Hurstville Rotary Club on some of its recent activities. Rotary right across Australia does tremendous work in communities, and nowhere is that more true than in Hurstville in my electorate. Hurstville is the largest centre within Banks, and the work of Hurstville Rotary is particularly important.

One of the important functions that Hurstville Rotary performs is raising funds for Australian Rotary Health. Australian Rotary Health contributes substantially to health research projects across Australia. At a recent fundraising dinner, which was held in South Hurstville on 25 October, we were fortunate to hear from some of the recipients of scholarships from Australian Rotary Health. These recipients are conducting health research in some very complex and important fields. These young people, as they presented to us on their work, really paid a great tribute to Hurstville Rotary because much of their research would not have been possible without the fundraising activities of Hurstville Rotary. Rotary Health is the largest non-government funding body for mental health research in Australia and provides a wide range of support in this area, so I would certainly like to congratulate the club on that activity.

The other activity of the club that I would like to acknowledge this morning is its recent fundraising campaign for Gabby in the Hurstville electorate. Gabby has a form of epilepsy known as infantile spasms. She endures, unfortunately, many seizures every day. The van that was previously used to transport Gabby broke down some months ago, and Hurstville Rotary have taken it upon themselves to assist her family in raising funds to purchase a replacement van. That will cost about $70,000, so it is a very considerable task.

On 15 November I was able to attend and co-MC a function that Hurstville Rotary held to help raise funds for the vehicle. We raised $32,000 on the night, which was a great success, and about $54,000 has been raised in total now by the club, so Hurstville Rotary are getting quite close to raising the $70,000 that is required. Tremendous work from Hurstville Rotary, and I want to congratulate them this morning on their efforts.

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