John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to inform the House about two recent developments in my Bennelong electorate. Macquarie Park is Sydney's fastest growing businesses district and is home to some of the country's most innovative and exciting industries. Australia's first hydrogen car charging station sits alongside international pharmaceutical giants and world-leading innovators like Cochlear and Macquarie University. Into this stellar crowd of overachieving companies a new college has just opened, and I was honoured to attend its opening day. Excelsia College has moved into a state-of-the-art facility for its growing numbers of students. Currently the college has 3,500 students and offers around 10 undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Moving to this new location will allow them to grow exponentially along with all the other high-growth companies in the vicinity. I was delighted to join Excelsia for their official opening last week and I warmly welcome Excelsia to their new premises in Bennelong, the innovation capital of Australia.

I also wish to promote the extraordinary efforts made by North Ryde Rotary in recent weeks. Every year they host the Macquarie Park fun run in late August, and this year was no exception. They welcomed a field of 361 total registrants—up a massive 37 per cent on last year. Half of those entrants entered the five-kilometre run, which was won by Marilyn Beatty in the women's division and Matt Dawson in the men's division. Matt was defending his first place title from a year ago, looking for a hat trick. Some of the colleges at nearby Macquarie University also competed against each other with Dunmore Lang College taking both golds through the efforts of Judith McLeish in the women's division and Tim Porter in the men's division. Another 160 competitors entered the two-kilometre run, which I had the honour of starting, and it was won by two of the younger competitors who perhaps took the definition of walking a little liberally; nevertheless, Abby Flanagan and Vincent Contini took home the deserved awards for this event.

The whole day was in aid of raising awareness and money for mental health. The target was $10,000, but this was well and truly eclipsed with over $16,000 raised by the end of the day. A huge part of the success was the efforts of Graham McMaster, who raised $5,000 on his own. This is an incredible achievement and will be greatly appreciated by our local charities. I am sure the House would like to join me in congratulating this incredible effort from my hardworking local Rotary club, and I look forward to next year's event, which I am sure will be even bigger and better.

Debate adjourned.