Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to congratulate the terrific children who have been given the responsibility of being a school captain or holding a leadership role at the 49 primary and secondary schools in my electorate. Last week I was privileged to be invited to speak at special assemblies at two of these schools where I presented leadership badges and a certificate to each leader at these schools. On Monday I was at Maralinga Primary School in Noble Park with the principal, Peter Gray. It was a pleasure to meet the two new school captains, Rebecka Taseska and Hayden Bolin, who will no doubt display all the important virtues required of leaders in their final year of primary education.

I was also happy to replace Maralinga Primary School’s well-used flag and present the school with a new national flag to fly proudly in their playground. It was great to see so many parents present on a Monday morning to watch their children receive their leadership badges. Maralinga is a small school but one which possesses a big place in the hearts of the Noble Park community. Their assemblies need to be held outdoors and the principal, Peter Gray, spoke to me about his hope that they will be able to build a hall out of the $15 billion schools component of the Rudd government’s Nation Building and Jobs Plan. I hope so too because education is extremely important to us—these kids deserve the best.

Carrum Primary School has just commenced a $4 million rebuilding project funded by the state government. I was there on Thursday morning with Principal Alana O’Neil and a number of teachers, including Marcus Mulcahy, to present more than 20 leadership badges and certificates to students. They certainly have a large leadership group at Carrum Primary School who will no doubt help out the very dedicated teaching staff at the school. Carrum Primary has four school captains, in the areas of environment, sport, art and German, and it was great to meet Alayna Hansen, Jake Kelly, Hayley James and Lachlan Morris, who will be ably deputised for by Stephanie Davies, Chelsea Turner, Niki Onurlu and Ari Breitkreuz respectively.

It was wonderful to see both these school communities encouraging children to become leaders not just in their schools but in the wider community and to see parents and teachers fostering the children in these roles. I know that the state member for Carrum, Jenny Lindell, has had a great part to play in the development of Carrum Primary School and has particularly made sure that the very large rebuilding program—it is a complete rebuilding of the school—takes place this year. It is hoped that the rebuilding will be able to be completed by the end of this year or early next year. (Time expired)