Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On 23 October this year I held a fantastic event: a school environmental forum at Syndal South Primary School. We held it at Syndal South because three of their very enterprising students had written to me about their concerns about the degradation that is happening to their environment. The Chisholm environment forum proved that young Australians are passionate about saving our planet. They had some wonderful ideas about how we can protect our environment. Some suggestions included encouraging native flora in our parks and schools, phasing out plastic bags, recycling water and increasing wind power and solar energy. It was great to see kids getting really excited about ways in which we can protect our environment. Students were deeply concerned about global warming and water sustainability, even asking when we were going to sign the Kyoto protocol. It is great to know the next generation is so committed to saving our planet.

School students from all the primary schools in my electorate were invited to attend. The majority of primary schools in the electorate did attend, sending over six to eight students predominantly from grade 6. They were a very vibrant bunch who entertained me and Mr Albanese for quite some time on the day with their concerns about the environment and their suggestions. They are full of wonderful suggestions which, if we took them up, I am sure our planet would be the healthier for it. One letter I received in reply from St Peter’s Catholic Primary School in Clayton says:

We would like to thank-you on behalf of St. Peters Primary School. It was a great pleasure to attend the Environmental Forum at Syndal South Primary School. We have written this letter to inform you what we think were the most important issues discussed at the forum.

The first important issue that should be further discussed is water. This is important because water is vital to the human body and is one of Mother Nature’s main resources. We think a solution for this problem is to use sea water to flush the toilets, have heavier water restrictions, have cleaning companies that will recycle water and for schools and houses to have water tanks.

The other issue that should be further discussed is the issue of Greenhouse Gases that are hurting our environment. This is important to us because the Greenhouse Gases are going into the atmosphere and endangering our animals, our environment and most importantly ourselves. Our solution to this problem would be to cut down on the use of appliances that use Greenhouse Gases.

Another solution would be to cut down on buying food that is grown in other states. We would like people to start buying food in our own states. This is because the car or truck that transports the food from one state to another is sending Greenhouse Gases into the atmosphere. This would reduce the Greenhouse Gases that are going into the atmosphere.

Once again thank-you for organising the environmental forum. It is nice to know that our politicians will listen to young people.

I was more than happy to listen to the young people on the day, who came up with some great suggestions. Others on the day were concerned that there was not enough funding going into ensuring that people put water tanks in their homes and that people should not be littering our environment. They asked constantly: Why do we still use plastic bags? Why does the government not subsidise water tanks and solar panels? Why are we not using wind power? Why don’t we ban smoking? Why don’t people use waste water—and, if they are wasting water, why don’t they get fined? Why is whaling continuing in Japan? Why don’t we use recycled water? Why won’t the government give to schools so they can have environmental programs? And some questions at the end were very informed about— (Time expired)

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