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

On 16 June I met with members of the Zonta Club of Botany Bay. It was great to meet with the group and hear about their important local activities. I want to acknowledge in particular Ann Selle, who was awarded the medal of the Order of Australia on Australia Day this year for her work with the Zonta Club since she joined it in 1994. Ann has worked on a number of projects, but there are two particularly notable ones. Firstly, Ann and the Zonta Club of Botany Bay produce cushions for distribution to women suffering from breast cancer. They showed me a number of these cushions, which are designed to relieve pain and help recovery after surgical procedures. The club works with a wide range of organisations to make this project possible, including working with textile classes at local schools. Secondly, the club also prepares and distributes care packs to local emergency accommodation locations for victims of domestic violence, and has been doing so for some years. I would like to congratulate Ann and all of the members of the Zonta Club of Botany Bay for all of their contributions to the St George community.

On 7 June, I visited Hannans Road Public School to attend its popular breakfast club program. This program was started by the Rotary Club of St George Next Gen back in 2015 by its charter president, Vimla Hayman. It involves the kids coming together to learn about healthy eating and producing a balanced meal for breakfast. At the school, the kids learn about growing and cooking food themselves. There is a fantastic veggie patch which is there and even eggs from chickens from the school itself. It is a great initiative. I thank Vimla Hayman and Rotary Club of St George Next Gen, and also Dan Sprange, the principal of Hannans Road Public School, who is doing a fantastic job at a great school in my electorate.

On 9 June, I visited Tower Street Public School to speak with year 5 and 6 students on the role of government. It was a really interesting and fun discussion with the kids. They had a really wide range of interesting observations and questions about parliament. They had visited Canberra earlier in the year. It was great to get their perspective on what they learnt while they were here and also to hear from them some questions that they had for me about the operation of this parliament and Australian democracy more generally. I would like to thank the assistant principal of Tower Street Public School, Matthew Probert, for organising my visit to the school. Tower Street Public School is one of the smaller schools in my electorate, but it is a school with a tremendous sense of spirit and purpose. It was great to visit the kids on the day.