Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On 20 May I visited Northlakes Public School to spend some time with the young people involved in the Active After-school Communities program. I would like to say that this is an outstanding program. It provides primary school students with a chance to take part in a free, structured physical activity program. It is a very important program because at the moment we have an obesity epidemic within Australia, and making sure that children become active when they are younger is one way of combating this.

Before I go into the details I would like to thank the principal, Greg Simmonds, for his involvement in the program and I would particularly like to thank Scott Elkovich, because he is the coordinator who arranged for me to visit the school. Scott is particularly committed to this program, to physical activity and to young people. The program supervisors, Melanie Fairman and Daniel McDonald, were also at the school. I would have to say that their commitment was obvious and the way they related to the children and the interaction that was taking place there had to be seen to be believed.

The young people were involved in a number of physical activities. They were activities that were improving their gross motor coordination. They were activities that were improving their cardiovascular fitness. The one thing that was really interesting about it was that they were having a lot of fun. Before I watched them in their activities I spoke to the young people and I asked them, ‘What is so good about this program?’ The first thing they said was that it was fun. Then they said, ‘You exercise and get fit,’ which I thought showed a lot of insight from these young people. They also said they related differently to the teachers because the teachers were fun to be with when they were involved in the program. They were a number of the issues identified by the young people as being important about the program.

It is also an opportunity to change the national culture that has developed over recent years with young people watching too much television and spending a lot of time playing video games. I would like to encourage principals in all schools to make the commitment that Greg Simmonds of Northlakes Public School has and to become involved in this program, because it is a wonderful program which has benefits for the school and benefits for the students. (Time expired)

See this speech in context