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

On 30 July I attended the Illawarra Retirement Trust Peakhurst Christmas in July luncheon. It was a fantastic lunch event at Mortdale RSL. IRT at Peakhurst is one of the largest retirement villages anywhere in the Banks electorate. It was great to catch up with some old friends and have some Christmas-themed food. There were also some great raffles and a whole range of other activities. The event was organised by the retirement village's social committee. I would like to particularly thank Lyndon Mitchell—a person with a very high energy level—who organises a lot of great activities in our area. He certainly did a great job on this day. I would also like to thank Donna Thompson, the acting lifestyle manager at IRT, for all her efforts. So thank you to everyone at IRT in Peakhurst.

On 8 August I visited the Uniting Nulgara Oatley village. I have been there on a number of occasions. It's a local independent living lifestyle village for the over-55s. It was great to catch up with the residents and with Vanita Bobee, the retirement village manager, and talk about a range of issues of concern to the residents—in particular, the need for a pedestrian crossing on Oatley Parade. The fact is that cars do go too fast down Oatley Parade at times, and the provision of a pedestrian crossing outside of the retirement village would assist those residents a great deal. It should be done. So far the council have not agreed to install a crossing—and they should do. I will continue to advocate for that on behalf of the residents.

On 26 July I visited East Hills Boys High School—a very well-known and well-respected school in my electorate. It was great to have a look around all of the terrific facilities and to chat with the principal, Karen Savins, and the P&C secretary, Susan Boxall. Traffic and congestion around East Hills Boys is a big issue, as is the provision of adequate bus services for kids. We also discussed a number of potential construction projects at the school. It was a great visit. I appreciated the opportunity to head down to East Hills Boys again, and I certainly look forward to my next visit.

On 29 July I attended the Commencement of Ministry for Reverend Stuart Maze at the Anglican Provisional Parish of Peakhurst South—or, as it is known, Church@thepeak. Stuart has been the minister there for about 10 years. Just recently the congregation reached the critical mass to enable it to be formally invested as a church within the Anglican community. Congratulations to Stuart, to his family and to all of the parishioners. It was a very nice service. A lot of people have put a lot of work into Church@thepeak over the last decade and that congregation has grown into a very substantial group indeed. I thank Stuart for his theological and broader leadership.

On last Saturday, 18 August, I attended the Elias Abacus Whole Brain Development Academy. These are great people in Penshurst. A lot of residents of Penshurst would not know that in the electorate of Banks there are contestants in the annual world abacus championships. These championships are held all around the world—this year they were in Hong Kong—in abacus, mental arithmetic and more general mathematics. Victor Yu, who is the founder and principal teacher of the school, does a tremendous job, as do the other teachers. It was great to present some awards to the kids, meet some of the parents and talk about this very important ancient discipline of the abacus.

In 2020 the world championships will be held in Sydney. Hundreds of people, especially young people, will come from all around the globe to compete. We know that we will be well represented on the Australian team, not least through the people at Elias Abacus Whole Brain Development Academy in Penshurst.

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