Stewart McArthur (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am delighted to welcome to the gallery this afternoon students from Lorne-Aireys Inlet P-12 College. They have come all the way from Corangamite to visit the parliament and see the parliament in action. They have been in Canberra for a whole week. They have visited the War Memorial, they have been to the Senate, and now they are seeing the floor of the House of Representatives, where the real policies and speeches take place. I particularly want to welcome Geoff Bird, Marilyn Mackenzie, Tony Turnbull and Vanessa Bartholomew, the teachers who have brought this wonderful group of young Australians to visit the national capital.

The Lorne-Aireys Inlet P-12 College is a very good school. The students have a very good academic record. They do their homework and they get good exam results. There are 300 students in the school, and recently they have had a $200 million science wing erected. I have personally visited the school, and I found the students and the teachers to be doing a good job and the facilities to be first class.

The students visited my office and I discussed with them the possibility of a bushfire in the Otways. I drew to their attention that the drought was one of the big issues facing the parliament, and just today the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry answered a question about the drought facing the whole of Australia. In my view, there is a possibility that the Ash Wednesday disaster could revisit the Otways and Victoria because of the very difficult and hot seasonal conditions. So the young students were aware that their issues are addressed here in the national parliament.

On Saturday, by chance, I am going to visit Lorne by going to the 70th anniversary of the Lorne CFA. That particular group of volunteers have served the committee well for three-quarters of the century. I put on the public record that Lorne won the local football premiership. The Lorne Dolphins beat Irrewarra-Beeac in a great win in the grand final, and those young students were delighted with that. I think it was the second successive win. The World Lifesaving Championships took place in Lorne earlier this year. It was a great triumph for the people of Lorne that those international championships were held there. The Lorne Pier has been fixed up. That is a wonderful, iconic visible symbol of Lorne, and the Pier to Pub event attracts 4,000 swimmers, including the Premier of Victoria, the Hon. Steve Bracks. So Lorne really is a major part of Victoria’s history. Lorne is the start of the Great Ocean Road marathon from Lorne to Apollo Bay. Personally, as you know, Mr Speaker, I participated in the half-marathon, from Kennett River to Apollo Bay, this year and last year. That is a wonderful event and is becoming very much part of the marathon calendar. The Lorne hospital has been just recently completed. That is a $10 million facility. It is not without controversy as to the location, but it is a wonderful facility and all those young people and their parents would be delighted with that.

Mr Speaker, as you know, Lorne is very much part of the Great Ocean Road. Those young students would be aware that Mr Speaker, as the member for Wannon, has some parts of the Great Ocean Road in his electorate, but the more significant parts of the Great Ocean Road are around Aireys Inlet, Lorne and Apollo Bay, and the less significant parts of the Great Ocean Road are down towards Warrnambool and the Twelve Apostles! There are 2.7 million visitors who come to the Great Ocean Road every year, and they go through the centre of Lorne, through Mountjoy Parade.

So Lorne, with its iconic status as a marvellous seaside resort of world fame, with gum trees close to the water, is a very significant part of the international tourist experience. International visitors go through Lorne, they become aware of the Australian countryside and then they move into the electorate of Wannon after they have been through the electorate of Corangamite.

I welcome the students. I am delighted they are here in the parliament and I hope they have had a wonderful time here in the national capital and in the national parliament, where they saw genuine debate taking place in the last 20 minutes of this week’s parliament.