Oatley Festival

Mr GREENE (Georges River) [5.20 p.m.]: I take the opportunity to praise the work of Oatley Lions Club. Last Saturday I had the pleasure of attending the twenty-third annual Oatley Festival, a tremendous community event organised by the dedicated and hard-working members of Oatley Lions. The festival was opened by the new Mayor of Hurstville, Councillor Philip Sansom, who was in attendance with his wife and sons. The festival had more than 100 stallholders, including representatives of scouts, local schools, Oatley Caring Centre, Neighbourhood Watch, State Emergency Services and St John Ambulance. An event such as this gives groups the opportunity to reinforce and increase their community profile, as well as raise much-needed income.

It has been estimated that more than $35,000 was raised on Saturday for these community organisations. Oatley Lions Club raised $7,500, which will be put towards this year’s projects. These include the building of a multipurpose community room at Oatley Public School for after-hours school care, the Hope for the Children Foundation, part of the St George family network, Oatley Caring Centre and Bezzina House, a cancer care lodge at Kogarah.

After happily losing my money on the chocolate wheel, I moved amongst the stallholders and caught up with many friends who, like me, were enjoying the fun of the fair. I was particularly pleased to see Alan Convery, President of Hurstville Rotary, selling raffle tickets for a car, which was provided by well-known local identity and generous businessman Ferdie Dominelli of Dominelli Ford. The funds from this raffle will be donated to the Hope for the Children Foundation.

I was also pleased to see Senior Sergeant Rick Simpson of Hurstville local area command, who was in attendance with two officers from the bike patrol. It was the third occasion within the week that I had seen Senior Sergeant Simpson, which indicates the enormous effort our local police devote to community relations. It can only be of benefit to the community and the police. The officers received plenty of inquiries as they happily distributed stickers and posters.

The diverse entertainment at the festival ranged from old McDonald’s farmyard to the Georges River concert band, a haunted castle and the ever-popular face painting, and plenty of other amusements were thrown in to keep the crowd of all ages entertained. I was particularly pleased to be in attendance during the performance by the Marist College Penshurst band. Having been a student and teacher at the school, and now with a son in year 10, it was a pleasure to hear the boys perform. School principal, Brother Neil O’Leary, ensured that the boys looked the part, and music teacher, Mrs Elizabeth Ford, made certain they sounded the part.

Oatley Festival is a community event that brings people together. Obviously, it provides the opportunity for local organisations to raise money. As importantly, it promotes involvement and social awareness. The same can be said about the Lugarno Lions Spring Fair, which is held annually at Gannons Park. Again this year I attended that event with my family, and the same spirit that existed at Oatley on Saturday was evident at the fair in September. I look forward to joining the Lugarno Lions again this Saturday evening at its annual night golf event.

In highlighting the Oatley Festival, I congratulate Oatley Lions on its overall endeavours in making the community of Oatley and surrounding areas a better place. Last year President Bryan Pirie and the club’s 35 members, both men and women, raised $23,000 for local projects. This year it hopes to raise $20,000 for the Oatley primary school out- of-hours school care and other local groups. Although this is a major commitment, I have no doubt that with the people involved this target will not be beyond reach.

It is important to highlight the enormous goodwill that exists within our community, not only in groups such as the Lions Club and Rotary. Many individuals voluntarily undertake an enormous amount of work in their community through functions such as the Oatley Festival, Lugarno Lions Spring Fair and Hope for the Children Foundation. All these community organisations provide significant support within our community. It is timely for each of us as members of Parliament to think about the enormous work that is done by these groups and sincerely thank them on behalf of our local communities and the community in general. Without them we would be a lot worse off.