Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

End of year is a great time for young people. This last week I went to Ipswich Grammar School, Bremer State High School and West Moreton Anglican College in my electorate. It is a time for reflection and it is a time to let your hair down. But there are a lot of young people who, unfortunately, during Schoolies Week do themselves harm and who will, regrettably, drink alcohol to excess. So it is timely that the federal government has launched its binge drinking advertising campaign. I commend the Prime Minister and the Minister for Health and Ageing for what they are doing in that regard. Nineteen community projects across Australia will receive $3.6 million in the first round of grants for grassroots community work. I can announce that, fortunately, my electorate of Blair will receive $40,000 for drug and alcohol free alternatives for students to celebrate the end of year 12. Ipswich State High School and Bremer State High School will receive that money for their post-formal mystery tour.

This idea of a mystery tour is the brainchild of Tanya McKenna, who is a longstanding teacher at Ipswich State High. She is the coordinator for special programs and she is responsible for human relationships education at the school. It is interesting because the teacher at Bremer State High School who has taken up the cause and who is running with it is Cathy Ashe, who was a student 10 years ago at Ipswich State High School who enjoyed the first mystery tour. The mystery tour is a great thing to do. It has become the cool thing to do. It has gone from about one-third of the young people wanting to go on it to more than 90 per cent using this as an alternative to binge drinking after their formal.

Post-formal parties are seen as the norm for young people and most of us in this House would have been to them. But they often cause a lot of concern for parents and schools alike. So an idea of a mystery tour for the year 12 students is a great alternative. In fact, on the DVD that I witnessed at Ipswich State High School on 20 November this year with the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing, Senator Jan McLucas, one of the students said that he enjoyed the mystery tour so much that he would like to repeat year 12 so that he could go on it next year. Even the year 8s that I spoke to at Bremer as well as at Ipswich State High School indicated that they were really looking forward to it.

The idea is to engage these young people once they have had their formal to go off and go ice skating, tenpin bowling and even to McDonald’s. I am not necessarily sure that the Minister for Health and Ageing would approve of going to McDonald’s as part of the mystery tour but they really enjoyed themselves at McDonald’s. They also went to Wet’n’Wild. They are so tired at the end of the night that they do not have time to think about drugs and alcohol. They actually get breath-tested before they go, and the young blokes who I spoke to at Ipswich State High thought that was rather cool. They get into their casual gear and off they go in their mystery tour bus. They raise funds for the mystery tour and community groups also support them—as does the local P&C at the school. Businesses in their local area also support them. So this has got a bit of publicity in Ipswich.

This particular model of a mystery tour has gone not only to Bremer State High School but also to Redbank Plains State High School, so I commend this idea to the minister because this will act as a model for other schools. Parents in my electorate have told me that they are concerned about what happens at post-formal parties and this idea of a fun night which is drug and alcohol free with fun activities for young people is to be commended. I commend the minister for the initiative and the funding in my electorate. It has made a big difference in the lives of dozens of young people and it has really helped their families as well. I thank them very much for the funding and commend Tanya McKenna and Cathy Ashe for their involvement and their initiative.

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