Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Sorry, Mr Deputy Speaker—my mind was just on those jam tarts!

I rise to congratulate a terrific young Canberran who has won the littleBIGidea national competition and will get the opportunity to travel to NASA in the United States. William Grame is an 11-year-old St Edmund's College student who has come up with a brilliant idea that will benefit many people who have diabetes.

William has type 1 diabetes and has to test his blood up to 10 times a day. This amounts to a lot of test strips for which William often gets in trouble for leaving lying around. And so William's idea was born: to help others with diabetes dispose of their blood-testing strips more easily by designing a small, plastic disposal unit using a 3D printer. The disposal unit fits into the testing kits used by diabetics, who can then feed the strips into it throughout the day and dispose of them when it gets full. William's idea took out his age group category in Origin's littleBIGidea competition—which saw more than 850 students submit their ideas—so this is an enormous achievement by young William.

I want to congratulate William and wish him all the best for his trip to the United States next year, particularly going to NASA. It will be an absolute high point. You are a bright Canberran, William. We are very proud of you; you have a bright future ahead of you and I look forward to hosting you here at Parliament House for lunch before the end of the school year.

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