Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to say that the schools in my electorate of Petrie are certainly grateful for their halls and new resource centres. But what I wish to talk about in the brief time I have is the Parliamentary Education Office. I would like to pass on my gratitude and that of the schools in my electorate to Ruth Barney from the PEO, who came to my electorate last Thursday and Friday and ran Parliament Alive in Petrie. We had two full days, and eight sessions were run in which we did a role-play of parliament with local school students. Over seven schools participated and over 650 students went through those role-plays over the two days.

I can say to this House that the feedback from those teachers and schools was overwhelming. These are schools and students who do not get the opportunity to send classes of students down to Canberra each year and consequently miss out on the opportunity of having a better understanding of how the parliamentary process works. Bringing these role-plays to our schools directly and allowing these students to participate certainly helps them in their studies in government but also helps them to understand what the roles of government, parliament and members of parliament are. Certainly the feedback from the teachers was that they are hoping we can do a lot more of these role-plays, and I hope to be doing those directly with the school classes and talking with them throughout the year as they study government throughout the term.

Most of the students who participated in the program are in grades 6 and 7, but we also had a class of year 10 students from St John Fisher College. Also attending were Humpybong State School, Prince of Peace Lutheran College, Southern Cross Catholic College, Aspley East State School, Scarborough State School and Kippa-ring State School. I would also like to thank Aspley East State School and Scarborough State School for hosting these events in their school halls. Of course, these events would not be able to happen if we did not have venues and if we did not have the support of these schools in holding these events. There were many students from other schools coming and going throughout the day, and these schools were very accommodating in supporting that program.

Once again, I thank the PEO for running this program. I encourage members who have not had the Parliament Alive program come to their electorates to do so. It is one that truly benefits young people in understanding how decisions we make here in Parliament House can affect them, their homes and their families on a day-to-day basis. (Time expired)

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