Damian Hale (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Higher Education Support Amendment Bill 2009, which is something that I am very passionate about. On indulgence, Mr Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Sturt for his contribution. This bill makes minor amendments to provide for administrative efficiencies in the operation of the FEE-HELP and the VET FEE-HELP assistance schemes under the Higher Education Support Act. It is certainly a very important bill. As a father of five children I am very passionate about education. Our love for education and our want for Australian youth to be better educated, and how we can improve that area, are core things that both the opposition and the government share.

My parents are both educators. My father, Bob, has been a very strong advocate for education for a long time. He did a one-year teaching course and then a Bachelor of Arts degree over about 10 years. He has been a school principal and has basically been an educator from 17 years of age until he retired at 65. He still, at the age of 67, goes back and helps out when he is needed. He has a history of 46 or 47 years as a school teacher, an educator, who staffed schools in the Territory. He also used to recruit teachers for the Northern Territory. My mother was also a school teacher, as was my grandmother, and my sister is also a teacher. So we certainly have a history of school teachers in our family. I believe that we should support anything to do with education.

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