Roger Price (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

No! I wish I had the skill, but I must say to the honourable member for Werriwa, no, I did not. But I certainly was approached by Father Slobo Miletic to see what we could do to get Deacon Miodrag Tomic out here to Australia. I took up the case with the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Evans, and I want place on the record my appreciation to him and the department for being able to cut through and get Deacon Tomic out here.

By the way, Deacon is a professor. After the fall of the communist regime he went to Russia to study and then he also went to Greece. He is a professor in the art, is highly qualified and is a lovely man. I was pleased to go back to the church. We got him out here late last year and this month the church had a bit of a banquet, and I was able to walk through the church. I cannot believe the progress that Deacon Tomic has made, with one assistant, to this church. It is unbelievable. In fact, I was a bit worried about whether I needed to remind him about our industrial laws. The church is going to be absolutely magnificent. Given his skills, there is some suggestion that perhaps after the completion of the church he may be able to set up a school so that the orthodox tradition of painting, whether it be Greek, Serbian or Russian can be taught here in Australia.

While I think about the Serbian community, late last year I celebrated 20 years of the aged-care facility which Lionel Bowen had opened in 1985 when I was the local member. I suppose it is a rare opportunity for a member to be at the opening of something and at the celebration 20 years later of its completely successful operation.

I have always enjoyed strong support from the community. I cannot think of a time I attended a function where there was not a presence of the community. I am deeply grateful for their support and encouragement in my time as federal member.

On Friday last week I had the great pleasure of having the Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, visit my electorate. We started off with a function at the Mount Druitt TAFE hospitality kitchens and commercial restaurant, the Greenview Room, where I had invited all the school captains and principals to meet the Deputy Prime Minister. I am pleased to say that they all turned up. The Deputy Prime Minister was able to speak with each set of captains and I am sure they will treasure that. On the way out we saw the hospitality kitchens and spoke with the students there that were learning their craft. I certainly thank them for the hospitality they afforded us and our guests.

There were a couple of things I particularly wanted the Deputy Prime Minister to see. Loyola Senior High School is getting a $9 million trade training centre. There had been a successful application under the previous government which later on collapsed. This is a really exciting project for the diocese.

For the last five years, Loyola Senior High School has been running the Nicholas Owen project. This is for students who are likely to drop out at year 10. It is a board certified course just for year 11 students with the aim of giving these students the skills and motivation to enter the world of work, a traineeship, an apprenticeship or a job. It is highly successful. I have to report a number of students drop out of the course on the way and do not complete it but for a very good reason: they have got a job. I have tried to interest the state government in a similar approach but I must confess that I have not been successful. The success rate of the Nicholas Owen year 11 course is over 90 per cent. I think that is outstanding. I think we have something to learn from it.

Interestingly, when we were discussing the project with students, with Bishop Manning; Greg Whitby, the CEO of the Catholic Education Office; Rob Laidler, the principal; and Cathy Larkin, the deputy principal, they said they have learnt so much about the Nicholas Owen project. It has taught them so much. They do not segregate the students and they all wear the same uniform so they are an integral part and a valued part of the school. They have learnt so much that will assist them when we get the trade training centre up and running.

I particularly wanted to show the Deputy Prime Minister Plumpton High School and the Plumpton Educational Community. What is the Plumpton Educational Community? Certainly, in New South Wales—and I suspect Australia wide—we have all experienced great efforts in recent years to assist the transition from grade 6 in primary school to year 7 in high school. Early on when I was a member it is true that high schools did not talk to primary schools. There was no interaction whatsoever. I commend those initiatives. I think the community concept takes it a significant step further—to where the principals voluntarily meet. The high school principals and the primary school principals meet and develop joint approaches to things so that you can have from K to 12 a common approach to citizenship, bullying and a whole range of things. There is joint in-service training, so you have primary school teachers and high school teachers in the same room receiving the same training.

There are lots of benefits. I could go on. For example, they use primary school teachers to develop learning plans for the high school. The primary school teachers obviously know the students who are graduating to year 7, so they have a firm picture—it is not a mystery—and year 7 can be tailored to the needs and the educational attainment of the students at the time. I could go on and on. I know that the Plumpton Educational Community would like, for example, to be a centre of excellence for new teachers who are entering the profession so that they can be mentored into the profession.

Whilst we were there it was also an opportunity to again meet the school captains from Plumpton High School; the principal, Eric Jamieson, who I have enormous admiration for; and the school principals and captains from Plumpton House School, Plumpton Public School, William Dean Public School and Glendenning Public School. I congratulate these schools on the way they are so focused and are cooperating. I hope there are opportunities, either through the states or federally, to develop the concept. I am not sure whether this approach exists in other states—I am not sufficiently across it—but I do believe there is much to commend it.

In addition to the meeting on Friday I was able to visit 14 schools in my electorate, both primary schools and high schools. It was an absolute joy to see all the construction activity and how welcomed all that construction activity is by the schools. I saw the new science blocks. I remember what the old science blocks looked like. They were dark, dim, middle-aged rooms. Now you see bright science labs with segregation between the benches and the learning facility. There is even a huge change to the prep rooms. There is not one bit of graffiti on any of them. The students and the teachers very much appreciate it, and I am sure we are getting positive outcomes.

I have never before seen the size of some of the COLAs that are being constructed. They are just mammoth buildings. As the honourable member for Werriwa would know, in Western Sydney before Christmas we were getting temperatures up near 47 degrees, so having these areas of shade, where you can take students out from school classrooms into the shaded areas or play in shaded areas, is very critical.

I took the opportunity to talk to them about the My School website. As we all know, this is something that is here to stay and the parents and the community have voted with their feet. But it does not mean that there are not some issues surrounding it, and of course the website is a salami slice of school activity. The great thing about the next time it is uploaded is that we will be able to see the students as they progress through the different grades. We will be able to see five-year-olds as year 3s. We will be able to see how schools have added value, and I think that this is a very critical aspect of improving the website.

I have discovered some anomalies on my trip that can be addressed by directly approaching ACARA and seeking to have the demographics refined. But it is very clear that the old debate about whether we can trust the public or whether they are entitled to have information about school performance is a dead issue. I also believe that school principals and schools will be proactive next time the My School information is uplifted and tell parents exactly what the data means and what is being measured. It does give a slice of activity of what is happening in a school but it is not the total story.

So I welcome the fact that schools will be even more proactive than they have already been. I suppose I should say that I am very proud of the fact that currently I have $140 million being spent on the Building the Education Revolution and I have not found a dissenting voice amongst the principals, much less from the parents and the students. They are absolutely delighted.

See this speech in context