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

On Saturday, 29 October I attended the 18th Bankstown Children's Festival. It was great to attend the festival again this year and to be a part of the activity. The children's festival was started many years ago by Mr Thuat Van Nguyen OAM, whose vision was to bring together the different cultural communities of Sydney—people of different cultural backgrounds and, particularly, the kids from those different cultural communities—and celebrate those different cultures and the harmonious nature of our multicultural society. I would like to thank Mr Van Nguyen for his fantastic work in creating the children's festival, in promoting it and in making it what it is today. As always, it was a terrific day with good weather this year. Congratulations to everyone who was involved in putting this event together.

Last Friday, 4 November, I attended the 72nd annual art show presentation of the St George Art Society awards. It was held in the old school of arts building at Kogarah, which must be one of the most beautiful buildings across the entire St George region, and it was a great to see the tremendously high quality of the art on show. I would like to congratulate all the winners on the evening—including Mr Walter Bennett, who won the award for mediums other than oil and watercolour—and, indeed, to thank Jean Harrow, the president of the St George Art Society and all of the committee for all of their work. The art society has been through some difficult issues in recent years, and it was great to see everyone coming together for that most timeless of activities, which is appreciating fine quality art. To Jean Harrow and everyone who was involved: congratulations on another great event.

In late October I attended the AGM of Coolaburoo Neighbourhood Centre in Padstow. Coolaburoo is a great institution in the Padstow area that looks after the community through so many different events and groups. There is the Picasso kids art group, the ladies mosaic group—we saw a number of those mosaics on display on the day—and a range of other services that provide support to people in the community, particularly people in the community who are in need. Recently I visited the ladies crochet group at Coolaburoo, and that was also a great visit. To Rossanna Umansky, the Coolaburoo manager, and all of the staff and volunteers: congratulations on another great year.