David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Sunday, 6 May, I attended the St George Touch Association's presentation night to present the Banks Outstanding Sporting Achievement Awards. I want to thank the club president, Scott Henderson, and everyone who was there on the night. Earlier in the year, the St George Touch Association had seven teams compete at the New South Wales Junior State Cup in Port Macquarie. It was really good to be able to acknowledge some of the players for their outstanding efforts last weekend. I'd like to congratulate Tara-Jade Ottman, Casey Cowgill, Alicia Langley, Orlando Garcia, Luke Tiberti, Brady Lauretti and Max Titley for all of their achievements. The St George Touch Association started in 2009. They have more than 450 participants across 50 teams at playing down at Peakhurst Park in my electorate. I really enjoyed attending the presentation night. Congratulations to everyone on a great season.

On 26 April, I met with the Scouts leader John Dwyer from the 1st Hurstville Scout Group. The 1st Hurstville Scout Group is one of the longest standing Scout troops in Sydney and, in fact, has been in existence for some 110 years. There are currently over 100 active members in the group, being joeys, cubs, scouts, venturers and rovers. I'm very fortunate to have a very active Scouting community in the Banks electorate. We see the Scouts participating in so many community events—on Anzac Day, Clean Up Australia Day and so many other days—putting back into our community and providing an environment in which young kids can learn more about teamwork, their community and their innate abilities within themselves. Thank you to John Dwyer and everyone at the 1st Hurstville Scout Group.

On 20 April, I met with Peter Jones, the president of the Oatley Football Club. The Oatley Football Club is going exceptionally well, with around 700 members registered this year. It is one of the strongest clubs anywhere in the St George region. The Oatley Football Club's home ground is Renown Park. One of the issues down at Renown Park is that lighting could be better. Lighting needs to be improved. There is some lighting there at the moment, but it's not always adequate for games and for training. With so many players, it is important that the lighting is upgraded to meet Australian lux standards. I look forward to continuing to work with the club on that very important issue.