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

I am looking forward to the opportunity this evening of informing the House about a number of community organisations in my electorate who have been doing some fantastic work. Before I do that, as a member of the House Standing Committee on Economics that recently conducted the inquiry into foreign investment in residential real estate, I feel a need to respond to the completely out-of-line remarks of the member for Rankin in relation to that committee and, indeed, to the work of its chair, the member for Higgins.

The member for Higgins did a great job as the chair of that inquiry. The points that she has been making with such force are very important ones. The most important of all is that under the entire term of the previous Labor government—all six years—there was not one person prosecuted by the Foreign Investment Review Board for a breach of the rules in relation to residential investment in housing. Not one person in six years, according to the FIRB as administered under the previous government, breached the laws. That defies belief. It is entirely appropriate for the chair of a committee to shine a light on that great failing and to note that the changes Labor made to those investment rules around 2010 brought confusion to the sector and to its enforcement. She was saying absolutely the right thing in calling FIRB and the previous government to account for, frankly, not doing the job to the extent required. It just defies believe that there was no-one in the entire nation breaching the rules. Common sense tells you that cannot be right, and common sense is usually a good indicator of the truth, in my experience.

I will now turn to some important events that have been going on in my local community. Some organisations have been doing great work in recent months. I want to tell the chamber, in particular, about the Oatley Heritage and Historical Society. The Oatley Heritage and Historical Society researches and reports on the history of the suburb of Oatley. Oatley is located at the beautiful Georges River right in the middle of my electorate. The Oatley Heritage and Historical Society, for many years now, has been conducting research and reports on the history of that great suburb. It works with local schools and tell the kids about the history of Oatley. It writes articles for local newspapers about our local history.

Recently I was able to meet with its president, Roger Robertson, and various other members of the committee to talk about the great work that the historical society is doing. Just to give you a sense of how detailed the work is that the society conducts, right now they are doing a piece of research into Oatley in the year 1938. It is focused entirely on what was happening in the suburb of Oatley in 1938. That shows you the intellectual and research depth of this organisation. Once a quarter, they host an information evening in the Oatley municipal library where they talk about the history of the suburb. I am looking forward to getting along to one of those events shortly. They also have a terrific collection of archival material, photos and videos, and they are increasingly putting those up online so that the people and young kids of Oatley can learn more about the history of that great suburb. I say congratulations to Roger Robertson and all the team at the Oatley Heritage and Historical Society.

Tonight I also wanted to congratulate the Riverwood ex-services club and the Riverwood ex-services legion for their recent Remembrance Day service. Riverwood RSL is one of the bedrocks of our community. The Riverwood ex-services legion branch, which is led so ably by Dick Matthews, does a fantastic job in our community. The Remembrance Day service was a particularly poignant one. There was singing from the St George Sing Australia group. I would like to thank the several dozen singers who were there, including its leaders John Darcy, Toni Darcy and Margaret Corby.

I would also like to thank the kids from Lugarno Public School who came along, and Irene Faros, the principal, who is a very energetic leader for that school. They sang beautifully on the day. It was terrific to see them there. I certainly want to congratulate Riverwood Ex-Services Club. President Michael Free and Stuart Jamieson, who has recently taken on the CEO's role, are doing a terrific job.

Recently, I was also able to take some time to meet with ROAR at Riverwood, which is the newly formed residents' organisation at Riverwood, which is a thriving community in my electorate that has some big changes going on at the moment. There is a large new development going on at Washington Park, which is a mix of public and private housing. There is a terrific community spirit in the Riverwood area. I would like to congratulate Lance Brooks and Michelle brooks, from Payce Communities, who are doing a great job in encouraging residents to speak out about the issues they care about. Each Friday they have a barbecue there in the Riverwood area for local residents. It is a free barbecue and it is a great place to go along and catch up with friends. I was there last Friday having a chat with local residents. I met with a number of residents at the ROAR meeting: Claire Ballieu, Antonio Genovese, Omar Sharif Haidar. It was a full and frank discussion, which are always the best kinds. I enjoyed it very much.

In the community of Hurstville, in my electorate, there is a very strong culture of education. Education is absolutely critical right across my electorate, but no more so than in Hurstville. There are a significant number of tuition colleges where parents make sacrifices to send their kids to these tuition colleges, sometimes at significant expense, to give them every opportunity to make the most of their talents. Last Saturday I visited Fiona Education, in Hurstville, to award certificates to the best students in the tutoring centre. It is run by Fiona Park and has been in business for more than 10 years. It teaches kids from kindergarten all the way up. It was great to be able to provide certificates to Kelly Yu, Alicia De'Battista, Lucas Liang, Leo Ziyu Huang, Brendan Li, Landon Jarvis, Arthur Zeritis, Angela Ji, Fardin Shadman, Simon Carey, Perry Chen, Leo Yang, and Thomas Liao. From year 4, Emily Wu, Logan Ng, Victor Mok, Jasmine Guan, and Fiona Lin. From year 5, Sebastian Papadopoulos, Henry Lan, William Cui, Arena Wang, and Tony Mao. From year 6 Francis Mau and Charles Liang also won certificates. There was a fantastic community spirit at Fiona Education on Saturday. I applaud and encourage the kids who are doing that extra work, and the parents who are really encouraging the kids to make the most of their abilities.

I would also like to congratulate the Knights of St George Heart Association. St George Hospital is one of the most important institutions in the St George region. For nearly 30 years the Knights of St George Heart Association has been raising money for the cardiothoracic unit at St George Hospital. Saturday night was another one of those terrific events. Dr David Horton is president of the Knights of St George Heart Association. On Saturday night we heard not only from Dr Horton Snr, but also from Dr Matthew Horton, who is actually Dr Horton Snr's son and himself a cardiothoracic surgeon, following in his father's footsteps at St George Hospital. It was a terrific night. Congratulations to Susan Leahy, who did so much work in the preparation. There is always so much involved in organising one of these big dinners and Susan did a great job. I would also like to congratulate Alan Jacobs for all of his efforts. More than 200 people actively contribute to the Knights of St George Heart Association. It is a fantastic organisation. I have never been to a local event with so many community leaders, which really demonstrated the depth of feeling for this organisation and its work. I thank the Knights of St George. Like all the other organisation I have discussed tonight, I congratulate them on their great work.