Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

During the school holidays I had the pleasure of hosting my first mock parliament school holiday activity. Over two sessions, we welcomed 70 enthusiastic years 4, 5 and 6 students from across Bennelong to learn about how our parliament works. These budding parliamentarians had the opportunity to role-play as MPs, debate pressing issues and gain a hands-on understanding of civic engagement and leadership.

Not everyone can make it down to Canberra for an excursion, so I held these events to ensure that everyone has access to important civics education and for them to learn a little bit about what our nation's parliament does. This event aimed to engage young students in the democratic process, educate them about the workings of government and inspire them to become active participants in their community. Through lively debates and interactive sessions, the students not only learned about the importance of civic engagement but also demonstrated their potential as future leaders.

During our first session in Ermington, we kicked off the event with a very special message from you, Mr Speaker—thank you for sharing your words of wisdom with our newly appointed parliamentarians for the day. We then went into an in-depth discussion about the role of parliament and the day-to-day responsibilities of a member. The highlight of the day was undoubtedly the spirited debate surrounding a proposed piece of legislation which would have banned homework in schools. The students exhibited their exceptional critical thinking and persuasive prowess as they presented compelling arguments both in favour and against a homework ban. I can confirm that homework was banned in Bennelong, thanks to the work of the Ermington mock parliament.

A few days later we held our second mock parliament at Ryde Public School, and it was great to welcome a bunch of other students to learn about how the parliament works. At Ryde, our debate was whether or not pineapple should be on pizza. It's truly an important debate, and one of the true culinary challenges of our time! I just want to give a shout out to Jerome from Denistone East Public School, who was one of the local students we had the pleasure of meeting and who led the debate to ban pineapple on pizza. With a policy platform like that, and with such a cultured name, I'm sure Jerome from Denistone East is destined for great things in Bennelong!

Our final activity at each event was to ask the students for issues that they wanted me to raise on their behalf in parliament. I can confirm that the kids were alright; the issues they raised are ones I deal with nearly every day. On infrastructure and transport: they want better local roads and better public transport, and they'll be pleased to know that the government has allocated nearly $25 million for Bennelong in the budget, to upgrade local roads. And the federal government will invest $115 million in a new electric-only bus depot in Macquarie Park. On education and youth activities: the kids advocated for reducing homework, more extracurricular activities at schools and cleaner school bathrooms. I will raise these issues directly with the New South Wales Minister for Education and Early Learning on their behalf. And on environment: they wanted all levels of government to increase recycling efforts, to plant more trees and to promote electric vehicles. Thankfully, we're a government that's addressing these issues, working to establish a viable and sustainable local recycling industry; implementing our Nature Positive Plan; and passing Australia's first-ever new vehicle emission standards to encourage the uptake of lower-emissions vehicles.

I have to say that our mock parliament school holiday events held in Top Ryde and Ermington were a tremendous success. It was heartening to see so many young minds actively engaged in the democratic process and offering thoughtful solutions and suggestions for our community. I'd like to thank the parents who not only enrolled the kids to be involved but who also took time out of their busy days to bring their kids to these halls for a couple of hours. They were well attended, and we'll be doing them in the next school holidays. I even had one parent take the day off work to bring their kid to our school holiday event, which was really nice of them. Next time we'll trial a mock parliament targeted to older students, in years 10 to 12. I'm sure debate topics will be a bit more rigourous.

I look forward to working with our local schools, parents and students as we hold more mock parliament sessions in Bennelong. I'd like to thank Ryde Public School and also the City of Parramatta council for helping us secure the space to do these and for allowing us to do these sessions on-site.

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