David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) Share this | Hansard source

The pool at Peakhurst West has a very proud history, dating back to the 1960s, when the community got together and raised the funds to open it. Since that time, many tens of thousands of people have learnt to swim at the pool at Peakhurst West, on Ogilvy Street, and, for more than half a century, it was operated by the community with great success.

Recently, the pool's management was taken over by BlueFit, and we have had a situation where the pool has not reopened after the end of the COVID lockdowns in Sydney. This has been of great concern to me and the community. This morning BlueFit confirmed that the pool will reopen next Wednesday 1 December. That's a really important development and a very positive thing for our community. I thank BlueFit for doing that—it's the right thing to do—and I want to thank all of the community groups that have helped in bringing attention to this very important issue, including Penshurst RSL swimming club and many others. The pool will reopen to community groups next week, and that's a great thing for the community in the Peakhurst area.

Oatley Football Club was established in 1975, and it's gone from strength to strength over the years since. There were eight teams in 1976; there are 69 teams this year. There's a really strong focus on female football, with just about a third of all teams now female, which is fantastic. There are more than 850 players in the club. That has grown very substantially in the last five years or so. The club has done a tremendous job in promoting football in our community. I want to thank Belinda Stanton, the president; Lisa Kirby, the vice president; Antonella Cino, the secretary; Jason Finlay, the treasurer; Rob Wild, who was down there recently when I met with the club; and everyone else who puts in so much effort to making Oatley Football Club such a critical part of our community.

It's important that mental health services are provided in culturally appropriate ways. CASS is doing a very important thing in its recent opening of the H-Line mental health phone line service. This service caters particularly to Australians of Chinese background, with in-language support for mental health issues right across the community. It's a very positive initiative, and I was pleased to attend the launch of H-Line in Peakhurst. I want to thank Dr Bo Zhou, the chair of CASS; Henry Pan, the founding chair; and all of the staff and volunteers at CASS for this important initiative.

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