House debates

Thursday, 10 August 2017

Constituency Statements

Banks Electorate

10:03 am

Photo of David ColemanDavid Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

On 20 July I visited Carlton South Public School in my electorate to talk to the kids in years 5 and 6 about government. It was a great and spirited discussion with lots of excellent questions from the kids at Carlton South. I would like to thank stage 3 coordinator James Nobbs for facilitating my visit, and also principal Darren Galea for welcoming me on the day and more generally for everything he does in our community. Carlton South Public School is one of the largest of the 50 schools in my electorate, with around 600 students, and it is always good to visit what is a very strong and vibrant community.

On 30 July I visited the Sydney Mandarin Christian Church on Woniora Road in Hurstville. It was good to join with members of the congregation for morning tea and to learn more about the community. The church was established in 1989 and has been an important part of the Hurstville community ever since. Of course, Hurstville has one of the largest Chinese-background communities of anywhere in Australia, and the Banks electorate has one of the largest constituencies of people of Chinese background of any electorate in the nation. It was great to visit the Hurstville Mandarin Christian Church and talk to the church leaders and parishioners. I would like to thank Pastor Wen-Kuo Chin for his hospitality on the day and indeed the other members of the church committee for their hospitality. We had an excellent discussion on a wide range of issues, and I look forward to visiting them again in the future.

On 1 August I attended the meeting of the St Therese Padstow P&F. St Therese is a Catholic school in my electorate. It has about 200 kids and is a very important part of the Padstow and Padstow Heights community. One of the issues which have really troubled the school for a long time is the access in and out of the school, particularly along Harvey Avenue, which is a very narrow street—there is a lot of complexity for parents in dropping off their children and picking them up after school. I have been in touch with the council about this issue, which affects many, many families in our local community, and certainly will continue to seek to find a resolution, because it is a very difficult situation at Harvey Avenue. It is great to see the P&F taking so many positive steps for the school community. I would like to thank Daniella Morrison, the P&F president, and Jacky Vella, the school principal, for everything they do for the Padstow community.