Emma McBride (Dobell, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention) Share this | Hansard source

At the start of February, I had the pleasure of visiting Gorokan Public School, along with Dr Gordon Reid and Minister Jason Clare. Gorokan Public is a caring, tight-knit community, which is why it was a delight to have it as the location to announce the Albanese government's Student Wellbeing Boost bounce back program. The program will invest a little over $200 million this year to help young people at every single school across the country. That will boil down to an average of $20,000 per school to support students' wellbeing and mental health.

At Gorokan, school principal, Jesmond Zammit, said the student leaders, including school captains, Vienna Duke and Elijah Graham, would work with the P&C and the wider school community to come up with ideas for how the funding could best be used. The money could assist students from their kitchen garden to visit the Royal Easter Show this year. The school, under the leadership of teacher Kelly King, entered the Royal Easter Show for the first time last year, where they were very proud to be awarded a third-place ribbon. The students at Gorokan have grown amazing produce and would love the opportunity to see the fruits of their labour at the show.

COVID has been hard on students, teachers and school communities. Good mental health and wellbeing have a significant impact on young people's engagement with education and their learning outcomes in the classroom. These funds will allow schools to have a flexible approach to determining what works in their community and give them ways in which they can engage and improve students' lives at home, in the playground and in the classroom. Principal Zammit said of the funding, 'The school's bounce back is a timely and welcome government initiative that will greatly support student wellbeing across all Australian schools.' He went on to say: 'In my school, parents and carers will be provided with the opportunity to share their thoughts as to how this additional funding can best meet the needs of their children so as to target the specific needs of students in our school community. The impact of the pandemic on the wellbeing of children has been significant, and having the additional resources to support them to bounce back is such a major win for the children of our country.'

I want to take this opportunity to thank Principal Jesmond Zammit; the kitchen garden program lead, teacher Kelly King, who does an absolutely brilliant job; and all of the students and teachers at Gorokan Public for making Dr Gordon Reid, the member for Robertson, Minister Jason Clare and I so very welcome at their school. And I want to congratulate all the students on their amazing success at the Royal Easter Show last year in being awarded a bronze ribbon on their first time. I'm really excited about what this schoolkids' bounce back will mean. It will mean local communities making decisions about what best meets the kids' needs in their communities.

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