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

I am very pleased this morning to have the opportunity to highlight the fantastic efforts in my community of a number of community groups. Earlier in the month I visited Colin McFadyen Village, an independent living facility located in Hurstville. I have been to the village on a number of occasions. It is always a good and robust discussion, and I appreciate the hospitality that the residents show me when I visit.

One of the particular issues of concern is safety on Woniora Road at Hurstville. Woniora Road is a busy road that runs up towards Hurstville station and the main shopping area, and there have been occasions of dangerous incidents involving cars and pedestrians. That is of great concern to the residents of Colin McFadyen village, as indeed it is to me. I have raised a number of these matters with Kogarah Council and the New South Wales Roads and Maritime Services, and I look forward to those issues continuing to be addressed.

I want to thank Vanita Bobee, the community relations manager for UnitingCare in the southern region of Sydney. With Vanita, I have visited not just Colin McFadyen Village but other important villages, such as Nulgara Village at Oatley and Forest Village at Peakhurst. Again, I thank the residents for the hospitality they have shown me.

I also wanted to acknowledge and celebrate today the success of our Local Sporting Champions. This is a tremendous program through which the federal government provides funding assistance to enable young kids who have excelled in their chosen sport to meet the cost of the travel to those often-distant events. I have a local community committee which assists me in assessing applications. We have had applicants successful in fields as diverse as snowboarding, badminton, volleyball, ice hockey, table tennis, rhythmic gymnastics and more. In particular, I want to thank our current group of recipients and congratulate them: Aiden Sillato, Ray Gu, Madeleine Dahan, Finn Macmillan, Raina Rush, Lauren Carey, Alex Yeung, Te Wehi Waitere, Chloe Tan, Celina Un and Sophia Low. They are a credit to their community and to their families. We really do honour their success in their various sporting endeavours.

Not far from my electorate office in Revesby is Revesby South Public School. The Revesby South school is a great centre of excellence in our area and is very central to the Revesby community. Recently, I visited the school and met with the principal, Christopher Whitten, who is a very strong leader of that school. I did appreciate the discussion that we had touching on many issues of concern to the local community and, indeed, to the education system more generally.

I also want to congratulate the school community on its great initiative of producing a recipe book derived from the recipes of families from the school. Each family provides a recipe, and they all get put into this book, which is produced as a fundraising activity for the school. It is called Food Glorious Food. It has a wide range of different recipes, and it is sold to benefit the school. A number of local community businesses also sponsored the production of the book and assisted in its preparation. I would like to acknowledge P&C President Leigh Trindall and committee members Kellie McFarlane and Kristy Gilberd for all of their efforts in putting this really important publication together. All of the funds from the book go towards upgrading the school's outdoor play areas. It is something that is great for our local kids. The book makes a great Christmas present. I recommend that people get down to the school and pick up a copy of that publication. (Time expired)