Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to take this opportunity to mention a few important achievements and events in my electorate. On Sunday, 25 October Fremantle celebrated one of the most distinctive occasions on its calendar with the Blessing of the Fleet parade. The Blessing of the Fleet was first introduced to Fremantle by Italian migrant fishermen in 1948, and it has become an important annual event for the port city, combining culture and history in a day of reflection and celebration. After a service at St Patrick's Basilica, the annual procession travels through the city streets to the fishing boat harbour, where the blessing seeks prosperous and, above all, safe conditions for the fishing season ahead.

The Blessing of the Fleet parade occurs in the middle of Fremantle's fortnight-long arts festival, which is now in its 110th year, making it Australia's longest-running cultural program. The festival itself opens out into a range of specific programs including the Norfolk Lanes Youth Festival, the Wardarnji Aboriginal Cultural Festival, the children's festival and Fest-a-con—a kind of sustainability focused anti-conference which continues the Fremantle community tradition of pioneering new ideas and practices.

This brings me to another example of environmental awareness and the practice of sustainability in my electorate. I am glad to take this opportunity to acknowledge the fantastic achievement of Hilton Primary School in being announced last Friday night as the winner of the Waste Wise school of the year at the Waste Authority's prestigious Infinity Awards. This recognition is a reward for the entire school community—all 140 students, parents, teachers and support staff—and reflects the dedicated effort made to implement a range of activities, programs and new infrastructure aimed at enabling students to become ambassadors for the environment and their community. Through the Waste Wise program students at Hilton Primary School have learnt about plastic-free July; constructed a worm farm; participated in regular Rubbish Rangers litter collection drives; recycled batteries, toothbrushes and mobile phones; and conducted waste-free lunches each Tuesday. At a recent Junkadelic workshop children made instruments and costumes from recycled objects and other materials, and then the entire school paraded their wares as an entry in the Fremantle Festival parade.

With the goal of eliminating the need for plastic wrap altogether, students have taken an educational role at local market stalls by showing people how to make their own beeswax sandwich wraps. Every Wednesday students have worked alongside community members in the Hilton Harvest Community Garden, adjacent to the school grounds, as part of the Buds 'n' Blooms intergenerational gardening program. This enables kids to understand and enjoy the benefits of home gardening and of fresh fruit and vegetables in particular. Next year the school will remove juice boxes from the lunch order menus in a further effort to reduce waste and increase health. I congratulate Hilton Primary School, one of the smaller schools in my electorate, for their inspirational leadership and hard work in earning this award, and I commend their thoughtful, inclusive and holistic approach to education.

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