Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Patrick Voon was a towering figure of the Chinese Australian community. His involvement with the Chinese Australian Forum spanned two decades. He was an accountant born in Malaysia. He loved Australia and wanted the Chinese community to take its rightful place in it. When Patrick became CAF president, he took on radio broadcasters who made racist comments about Chinese Australians. He preserved the Chinese market garden in La Perouse from being redeveloped. He was particularly concerned at various times about the position of Chinese students on university campuses and the ongoing racism directed to Chinese Australians. He led a campaign to retain sections 18C and 18D of the Racial Discrimination Act, and I was at common cause with Patrick about those sections and remain convinced that we did the right thing. Because of our work on multiculturalism, Patrick and I became close friends. He regularly helped me on election days, through good times and hard times. His friendship meant a great deal to me. His untimely death from pancreatic cancer is a cause of great sadness to so many across our community. To Patrick's family; his wife, Patricia; and daughter, Alison: I honour a lion of the Australian Chinese community. May his memory be a blessing.

Community is built through sport—through training together, the joy of competition and the friendships that develop when people commit to something bigger than themselves. I recently had the pleasure of joining the Hawkesbury River Dragons at Parsley Bay to help celebrate the club's 15th anniversary. Founded in 2011, the dragons are a volunteer driven club that bring people together through a shared love of dragon boating in one of the most beautiful waterways in Australia. They've been successful in competitions but even more successful in building community. Fifteen years of any volunteer organisation is a genuine achievement. It doesn't happen without people who give their time and take on the unglamorous work of administration and logistics. I want to thank club president Steph Hague and all the members of the club for their service. I've been proud to advocate for the club to get better facilities, and I'll continue to do so.

I want to acknowledge one of Berowra's outstanding obstetricians, Dr Meera Mani. Recently, one of my favourite constituents wrote to me following the birth of her first child, a son, about Dr Mani's care, and I was so impressed I wanted to put what she wrote on the public record. She wrote:

Dr Mani immigrated from India and has established herself at the Hornsby Kuring-Gai Hospital and the SAN as a consultant gynaecologist and obstetrician for over 15 years.

Personally, for me, this lady is the sole reason my son exists. And the sole reason I can, live a life fulfilling my potential.

She first met me 10 years ago—I was 19 and kept presenting over and over again to Hornsby ER with pelvic pain. Despite many naysayers writing me off as a perfectionistic academic overachiever who must 'just be stressed' or 'anxious about grades'—she insisted on doing the surgery which diagnosed my endometriosis. This alone, was life-changing and life-enabling. It allowed me a career.

Dr Mani is a shining light for so many women and girls in Berowra. She's fierce when it comes to ensuring women aren't dismissed or their symptoms delegitimised—and has carried that torch loyally and steadfastly for me for the past decade.

If I hadn't had her guide me through the past 10 years female health wise, our son would … not exist.

Time and time again, she fought for my son's existence, and my quality of life, just as tenaciously as me. Searching for answers, consulting doctors far and wide, imparting her expert knowledge—there's nothing … Dr Mani would not do for her patients.

She answers emails at all hours of the day/night/weekend. Often, she waives the cost of appointments, just because she's that empathetic. You're in hospital on a weekend? So is she, sitting at your bedside, ensuring you're getting the best care possible.

What an extraordinary story. Thank you, Dr Mani, for all you do for the women of Berowra.

Over the course of my career, I've spoken about New Line Road many times, and I will not stop talking about New Line Road until it's upgraded. I'm the first parliamentarian, state or federal, to ever secure funding for the upgrade of the road. When in government, we secured $10 million for the full planning of the road. The Perrottet government put aside $70 million for the upgrade between Purchase Road and Hastings Road in the last budget, but Labor continues to dishonour that pledge. I'll keep fighting until Labor honours the commitment to my electorate to widen New Line Road so that families have more time together and less time in the traffic.

Parking at Epping remains a problem. Just last week I was driving around for half an hour trying to find a car park near Coles before giving up and parking on the other side of Epping. You just can't keep increasing the density of Epping while providing inadequate car parking. Local residents and people who do business in Epping are signing my petition because we need change. Epping's a great part of the electorate, but it needs more parking. You can't have that much development and not put the parking in place to meet it. It's bad for businesses. It's bad for residents. It's bad for our community. I'll keep fighting until we've got the parking Epping deserves.