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

Today I rise to speak about the Petrie Schools Summit for 2011. This is a summit that I run each year and which brings together students, principals and teachers from schools across the electorate of Petrie. The Schools Summit is a full-day workshop on eight important topics that the schools have contributed to. We work through the topics and at the end of the day the ideas are put together in a submission that will be presented to the Prime Minister, the federal Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth, the state Premier and our local mayor so that all three levels of government are aware that our local young people and educators have a voice. This year's topics were: bullying, the proposed year 7 transition to high school, the value of arts and education, community spaces for young people, healthy Australia in the future, media and social wellbeing, role models and iPads in schools.

I would like to thank Deception Bay State High School for hosting the summit this year. Every year a different school in the electorate hosts the summit. Not only did Deception Bay State High School host the event this year; its hospitality students catered the event and were assessed on their preparation and service of the food, which was absolutely exquisite. They did an amazing job.

We had 114 participants this year: 36 primary school students, 11 middle school students, 22 secondary school students, 27 educators and 18 chairpersons overseeing the 13 working groups. Twenty-four schools participated in the event: Aspley East State School, Aspley State High School, Bounty Boulevard State School, Bracken Ridge State High School, Bracken Ridge State School, Clontarf Beach State High School, Clontarf Beach State School, Dakabin State High School, Deception Bay Flexible Learning Centre, Deception Bay North State School, Deception Bay State High School, Deception Bay Community Youth Programs, Deception Bay State School, Grace Lutheran College, Grace Lutheran Primary School, Hercules Road State School, Moreton Downs State School, Mueller College, North Lake State College, Scarborough State School, Southern Cross Catholic College, St John Fisher College, St Joseph's Catholic Primary School and St Paul's School.

We had convenors from across the electorate including representatives from local Indigenous groups, businesses, our Police Citizens Youth Club, the Queensland Police Service Child Protection and Investigation Unit, Regional Development Australia Moreton Bay, Brisbane Airport Corporation, School Community Relations, Redcliffe Environmental Forum and the owner of McDonald's Bracken Ridge, as well as a youth worker from Deception Bay Community Youth Programs. We had the president of Lions Recycle for Sight Australia, the director of MW Training, staff from Moreton Bay Regional Council, staff from Chameleon Housing, the manager of BallyCara Retirement Village, staff from Dolphins Health Precinct and radio commentators from 99.7 FM community radio. These people turned out to oversee and chair these working groups all day long. They gave up their time for free to work with these kids to get their ideas because they understand the importance of giving young people a voice and how important it is that all levels of government listen to that voice. That is what this summit is all about.

I look forward to putting this year's submissions together and presenting them to the various levels of government. I look forward to coming back into this chamber to report on the ideas that have come out of this year's Schools Summit. This is a great opportunity for our young people—from private schools and public schools, primary schools and secondary schools—to come together, sit around a table and share ideas and then go away having built new friendships and relationships. The students quite often keep in contact with each other after the event to keep sharing ideas. This is how you bring communities together. Once again, I congratulate Deception Bay State High School for being the host and showcasing their school at the Petrie Schools Summit for 2011.

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