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

I would like to congratulate the Lions Club of St George on its recent morning tea and breakfast for Jeans for Genes Day, which was held on 4 August at the Beverley Park Golf Club. John and Tina Harrison do a fantastic job at St George Lions, as do the entire committee, in running every year a number of different events to raise money for important projects. Jeans for Genes Day has been running for quite a number of years around Australia and funds raised support the Children's Medical Research Institute, which is based at Westmead in Sydney. The CMRI does world-leading research on a wide range of issues of great importance to families with kids who have illnesses. So I thank St George Lions for that and also for being involved in the Wrap with Love project.

Under the Wrap with Love project, our members were knitting and crocheting squares to come together into blankets. They've been doing so for quite a number of months. Those blankets then go to places all around the world. In fact, more than 70 countries around the world benefit from the Wrap with Love project. It addresses issues of hypothermia and other very serious matters in developing countries around the world. So thank you, St George Lions Club, for everything that you do.

In Oatley in my electorate there is a very important environmental issue that needs to be addressed by the Georges River Council. Adjacent to the Myles Dunphy Reserve, which is a pristine area of bushland in Oatley, there is a former bowling club site. For a number of years that bowling club site has been dormant. The question now is: what do we do with that land? My very strong view is that that land should be preserved as public space and it should be incorporated into the broader Myles Dunphy Reserve. The Myles Dunphy Reserve is beautiful local bushland. It is enjoyed by many residents of Oatley and surrounding areas. Oatley, more generally, has a reputation all around Sydney as one of its most beautiful suburbs. There is Oatley Park, Myles Dunphy Reserve, Oatley Pleasure Grounds and a range of other beautiful spots along the Georges River.

The council shouldn't proceed with the proposed high-rise aged-care development at the former bowling club site. It should be preserved as public space. It is very important that the council speaks with clarity on this issue to the residents of Oatley. There is overwhelming support for the retention of this area as public space, and it is time that the Georges River Council spoke very clearly on this issue and allayed the concerns of residents. I will be continuing to raise this matter on behalf of the Oatley community.

The St George area is one of the very few places in Sydney that does not have a synthetic athletics facility. Pretty much every other local council area in Sydney or the region does have such a facility. Bankstown, next to St George, has a great facility at the Crest. The Sutherland Shire has two synthetic athletics facilities, but St George doesn't have even one. As a consequence, the athletics community is being left behind, relative to other parts of Sydney. When St George Little Athletics gather every Friday night at Olds Park in Penshurst, parents and volunteers are literally going out and marking out the field with chalk in a way that hasn't changed since the 1960s. St George should have a proper synthetic athletic facility and a proper athletics area, pretty much like every other part of Sydney.

That is why the federal government has committed $500,000 to this very important project to get St George the synthetic athletics facility that it deserves and needs for both St George Little Athletics and for the broader St George athletics association. What we need now is for Georges River Council to decide where this athletics facility will be. There's $500,000 on the table from the federal government towards this project. There are many hundreds of local families who will benefit from this, and this is only asking for St George to have what most other places in Sydney have. So Georges River Council needs to make a decision, and we need to get this athletics facility put in place for the St George community.