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

On 2 February, it was great to go to Taste of Shunde restaurant in Hurstville to celebrate the lunar new year with CanRevive. CanRevive is an extraordinary organisation which started back in 1995. What CanRevive does is provide support for people in the Chinese-Australian community who are suffering from cancer, supporting them and their families through what, of course, is an incredibly difficult time. It was a visionary project when it started some 28 years ago. More than 8,000 people have been helped by CanRevive over the years. There are now activities in the city at Haymarket, in Hustville, and last year I was fortunate to open a new service at Westmead near the hospital. It is a wonderful organisation. I want to thank: Eric Yeung, the president; Associate Prof. Stephen Liberal; Jenny Wallis, the vice president; and also Stephen Liu, the chairman of the CanRevive Cancer Foundation. A very large amount of money has been raised from the community to support CanRevive over the years. It is a reflection of the quality of the organisation.

On 1 February, we opened the new Kids at Play playground at St George Hospital. This is a project that was initiated by Hurstville Rotary, a fantastic organisation. I was able some years ago to secure $400,000 from the federal government to support that project. Hurstville Rotary deserves immense credit because they themselves contributed more than $250,000 to this terrific project which now incorporates a kids' playground. There are picnic eating areas. It is a beautiful outdoor spot and a great location for patients and their families to spend time in during a hospital stay. So thank you to Jan Gartrell and everyone at Hurstville Rotary who has been behind this great project.

On 29 January, I attend the Canterbury-Bankstown Tennis Association courts at Panania for the opening of the new courts. It was great to see president Roger Pitt there, Paul Burgess, Adele English, Linda Wright and many other people. Some years ago, the federal government provided $360,000 for an important upgrade of these courts and that upgrade has been completed. Canterbury-Bankstown Tennis Association does fantastic work and it was terrific to be there for the opening.

On 17 January, I attended the Jing Jing swim school presentation at Peakhurst West pool. Roy Cho runs the Jing Jing school and has taught hundreds of kids how to swim over the years, and many of those kids have reached a high level of competitive swimming. It was great to present awards to those kids and, in particular, to be there at Peakhurst West Swimming Pool, which was built and paid for by the community back in the 1960s and must always be preserved and protected.