Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to say congratulations to all the school students in my electorate who are winners of this year's Jagajaga Resilience Award. We have asked so much of our school students over the past couple of years. They have had to move to remote learning. They've missed out on so many of those opportunities and occasions that come with the final years of school, that come with being with their friends and in the classroom with their teachers, and they have all done remarkably well. I want to acknowledge that. The quality that I think has been particularly important in helping the students get through all of this is resilience. So I asked each of these schools in my electorate to select a student that set an example through their capacity to adapt to the challenges that we've been seeing, to overcome personal difficulty or hardship and to support others in their community to do that and to be resilient. The nominations I got have been just fantastic. I wish I had time to speak about every single one of those students, but they have truly led and they have shown amazing resilience. I want to say congratulations to all of them. It's been wonderful to be able to visit some schools to give awards in person and to do some virtually. I hope that I'll be able to give out more of those awards in person, but congratulations to all of those students. A big thankyou also to all of our schools and their teachers, principals and support staff. I know it's been a really difficult time. You have done an amazing job.

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