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

It's great to have this opportunity in the address in reply to focus on a number of tremendous community organisations in the Banks electorate and to reflect on not only the responsibility we have as local members but also the opportunity to help people who are the very best of us. I want to start out with a project that's gone over many years. It genuinely has been a privilege to be involved in this project and hopefully play a role in its ultimate success. It's a very serious story and it's a very sad story, but it is something from which something positive has ultimately come, which I'll come to in a moment.

Nearly seven years ago now I met the Cusumano family. The Cusumano family experienced the most immense tragedy. In 1995 Angelo Cusumano was working at his video game store, The Gamesmen, located in Penshurst in my electorate, and whilst working in his store he was murdered. His son, Angelo Jr, was 13 at the time, and he witnessed his father's murder. One cannot possibly imagine the trauma that Angelo has been through.

In 2016, I became aware of an organisation called Grace's Place. Angelo, along with a number of other people who as children had family members become victims of homicide, had a very big idea. The idea was that children whose families had been the victims of homicide should have somewhere to go, someone to talk to, someone to support them, and somewhere to stay and get support and counselling. It had never been done anywhere in the world. Over time, I met a number of other people who were involved in the organisation, including Kathryn Szyszka, who was the sister of Anita Cobby. I also met Martha Jabour, who is the Executive Director of the Homicide Victims Support Group and a remarkable Australian who has provided incredible support to, sadly, dozens and dozens of families who have had one of their loved ones taken away by murder. When we met back in 2016, Angelo, his mother, Mary, Kathryn, Martha and a number of others outlined what they wanted to do, which was to build a residential facility where kids could go if their families had been victims of homicide. It was a very big idea and had never been done anywhere in the world.

To its great credit, Blacktown Council in Sydney donated some land, and that was the first step. But in order to build this facility we needed about $10 million, which is a lot of money. The idea I had was that what Angelo and the families were really advocating for was a mental health support facility, because that's what it was. I was able to get Greg Hunt, then the health minister, to come to the electorate and meet with Angelo, Mary, Martha and Kathryn, and it was a very emotional meeting where the families set out what Grace's Place would mean to them. Greg Hunt committed, pretty much in that meeting, to helping make Grace's Place happen. A little while after that, we got a commitment of $6 million from the federal government, the New South Wales government put in about $3 million, and at that point Grace's Place was going to happen.

Over the following years, the project occurred. We had COVID, weather delays and all of the issues that you confront with these big construction projects. In November I was able to attend the opening of Grace's Place, and to see the impact it had on the families—I've mentioned the families that I have mostly worked with, but there are many other families involved as well—and to see their pride at the opening of Grace's Place was a really special thing. I thank the person who took on my most recent role—Emma McBride, the member for Dobell and the Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention—who opened the facility. The New South Wales government was there, represented by the Attorney General, and the New South Wales government has done a wonderful job.

Now, Grace's Place is up and running. It is such a sad thing that there is a need for Grace's Place, but the sad reality is that there is a need. Through the incredible vision, compassion and hard work of the families, Grace's Place now exists, and what we hope is that in time this idea will be put in place elsewhere, and potentially in other countries. This is a world-first facility, and it's going to provide a lot of support to a lot of children. The person who is going to be most responsible for the leadership of Grace's Place is Martha Jabour, who for decades has been an absolute rock for families, particularly in New South Wales, who have been through this most awful circumstance. To Martha, Angelo, Mary, Kathryn and all of the families who have been involved, it's a wonderful thing that you've done. I think that many people would struggle to lift themselves, to stick at it and to work for years and years and years on such a project. Angelo has spoken publicly about how working on the project makes him constantly talk about and confront the issues that he remembers from when he was 13 years old. To have the strength to do that is just unbelievable, and I'm very pleased to have played a small part. Long may Grace's Place help young people in our nation.

I want to highlight a number of community organisations in the Banks electorate who in the past 12 months have been doing wonderful, wonderful things. I'm fortunate to have a tremendously diverse electorate—we're one of the most multicultural electorates in Australia. We have people from all backgrounds, walks of life, faiths, sexualities—all walks of life—and it's wonderful to be able to acknowledge some of them today. Tony Lee runs a great organisation called ELITE Table Tennis. My electorate has one of the biggest table tennis communities in Australia. Some years ago we hosted the national tournament at Hurstville. Tony does a terrific job with ELITE Table Tennis. It was great, before Christmas, to go down to Blakehurst High School and present awards to some of the kids that have excelled at ELITE Table Tennis this year. I thank Tony for everything he does at ELITE Table Tennis.

We have a very artistic electorate, and there are a great number of groups that celebrate the arts, be that in painting, music, dance or a range of different things. One of the great organisations is called Creative Arts, based in Hurstville. Rhondda Yiao runs Creative Arts, and does a terrific job. The quality of some of the artwork is incredible. I have zero artistic capacity, so when I see the work that some of these kids are doing—as young as five or six, right up to the HSC students who produce really thought-provoking and beautiful work—it is quite remarkable. It was terrific to get down there in November to see Rhondda and to acknowledge the success of Creative Arts. It has been a tough time for small businesses in the arts sector over the last couple of years with COVID, and it was good to see that so many of the kids were back on the premises.

Community radio is a very important part of our community, and in my new role as shadow communications minister I look forward to working with the community radio sector. Recently, I visited Connect FM, formerly known as 2BACR, which is based in Padstow in my electorate and which services the broader Bankstown-Canterbury community. Connect FM is absolutely central to so many people in our community—there are multicultural programs and great music programs, and even shows that specialise in things like motorsport and various other sporting activities. I thank Julie-Anne Munns and George Sinnis for their hospitality on the day—it was terrific to visit Connect FM and I thank them for their terrific work.

In the Banks electorate we are very fortunate to have our own writers group in Oatley. Oatley has a proud history in Australian literature, and a number of prominent Australian writers have been from Oatley, so it's fitting that Oatley has its own writers group. Late last year they published an anthology of short stories, generally with a theme around crime and mystery, so to speak. It was terrific to attend the launch event for the publication. It was good to see Bill Keats and Fiona Johnston from Oatley Writers' Group in the anthology. I particularly want to the editor, Helen Armstrong, who basically edited the entire anthology. It's a great group and we had some really interesting conversations about writing. It's a wonderful skill to have. The calibre of the stories in the anthology is fantastic, and I really appreciated the opportunity to learn more about the book on that day.

VIEW clubs exist all around Australia, and they're associated with the Smith Family. In particular, VIEW clubs support young people, particularly girls, in education. There's a social element to VIEW clubs; that's a lot of fun for the members, and it's great to see the camaraderie and friendship that people form at VIEW clubs. But there's a serious purpose too, because VIEW clubs support the education of girls, and there are few activities that are more noble than that. It was really good to attend the Lugarno VIEW Club Christmas lunch this year, held at the Lantern Club at Roselands. Val Colyer, the president, was there in fine form, entertaining everyone, as always. It was great to learn more about the Smith Family's relationship with VIEW clubs on that day. I should acknowledge, as well, that in addition to the Lugarno VIEW Club we have the East Hills VIEW Club, which meets at the Revesby Workers' Club. To the VIEW Clubs of Australia: thank you for what you do and thank you for the support you provide to the education of girls.

Sing Australia has been providing musical joy to the Banks community for a very long time now. For many years, John and Toni Darcy have been the driving force behind Sing Australia at Peakhurst, recently joined by Sue Allison, who has recently taken on the role of president. She is doing a fantastic job. Sing Australia does a big concert every year in the hall at Peakhurst South Primary School. This year it was great to see everyone back in full voice. For obvious reasons, for the last couple of years it wasn't really possible to hold big concerts and singing events. But this year it was, and it was a really joyful night. There would have been at least a couple of hundred people there. The choir itself would have had at least 70 participants on the night. It was nice to be able to sing along to the limited extent that I have the ability to do so! Thank you to Sing Australia and thank you to John and Toni—wonderful people. Thank you to Sue, as well, for your leadership and for everything you do in the community.

The men's shed movement has made a lot of difference to the lives of many men around Australia and it has also made a big difference to the people who help. I'm very fortunate to have a number of men's sheds in my electorate, and none is more active than the East Hills Men's Shed. I have to say that they have one of the best locations you could possibly get for a men's shed: it's in the Georges River National Park, down at the bottom of The River Road in Revesby. It's a former parks and wildlife shed in which heavy equipment and other things were stored. That means it's a really big shed. The equipment that the gentlemen from East Hills Men's Shed have in there is fantastic and allows them to do so many good things. They help schools and create different things to support people in their homes. They recently did some work creating ramps near the house of a family which has a child with special needs. They've done iPad holders for the schools and they've built community gardens at our schools. They do so many great things. Brian Barrett, who has been the President for a number of years, is doing a fantastic job. The Christmas party was a typically enjoyable and relaxed function, and I want to thank Brian and everyone involved in the East Hills Men's Shed.

The abacus is a very ancient piece of technology. In the Banks electorate, we're fortunate to have one of Australia's—in fact, I suspect it may be Australia's only—leading exponent of the craft of the abacus. The Elias Abacus and Mental Arithmetic Centre, based in Penshurst, is brilliantly led by Victor Yu. Every year, the kids from Elias Abacus compete in international competitions. These have been based all around the world. Of course, with COVID in the last couple of years, those have been virtual. Victor and the team are really looking forward to those happening on premises in the future, where hundreds of thousands of kids from around the world gather and show their skills with the abacus.

The kids from Elias Abacus school have won gold medal after gold medal at these international competitions. It's a wonderful thing, not only because of the arithmetic skills that one learns from the abacus but also because of the great cultural resonance of the abacus, an ancient device and something that helps many of the kids at Elias Abacus to learn more about their cultural heritage and to have fun at the same time. So to Victor and everyone at Elias Abacus, thanks so much for what you do.

We've got a very strong rugby league community in the Banks electorate, spread across both Bankstown and St George. The East Hills Bulldogs are really important. I note that the member for Hinkler has picked up on the Bulldogs, and he's right to, because the East Hills Bulldogs have actually been around for longer than the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and have a very close relationship with the club. There have been many players over the years who have come up from East Hills and have ultimately gone on to represent the senior NRL club.

East Hills Rugby League Football Club is very fortunate to have Rowan Brown as its president. Rowan is very passionate about league and, at the risk of embarrassing him, he runs a very substantial and successful business. For someone of his skills and capacity and, frankly, for someone who is as busy as he is to take the time out in a volunteer capacity to run the East Hills Bulldogs is a great testament to Rowan. Just before Christmas, I attended the awards day at the East Hills Hotel, and it was really nice to be able to acknowledge the success of the players during the year.

Marist Catholic College Penshurst is certainly one of the fastest growing and largest schools in the Banks electorate. A number of years ago, the school made the decision to—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 18:07 to 18:18

Marist Catholic College Penshurst is one of the fastest-growing and largest schools anywhere in the Banks electorate, and some years ago the school made a couple of big decisions. One was to become a co-ed school—it previously was a boys-only school—and the other was to go from a school that stopped at year 10 to one that went up to years 11 and 12. On top of that, it opened a brand-new campus at South Hurstville.

As you can see, there's been a lot happening at Marist Penshurst, which for many years was led by Principal Ray Martin. Mr Martin has recently moved to another school, and Connie Frino, who has been at the school for many years, has now taken on the role of principal. I want to acknowledge their great contribution and also Robert Shashati, from the P&F, who very graciously hosted me when I visited back in November. To everyone at Marist Penshurst: thanks for your great contribution to our community.

See this speech in context