Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to congratulate the government for Building the Education Revolution and what it has meant for local communities in Tasmania. I was at a school fair at Hagley over the weekend, at one of the primary schools in my electorate. It is a farm school. There are many small farms in the district. The place was buzzing and children were proudly showing their parents around. They had lots of events going on, including go-carts and pony rides, jumping castles, face painting, with lots of stalls all busy raising money for their school.

In the background was a new hall in the process of construction. The plans were publicly displayed for all to see and many took the opportunity to look at the plans and the partly finished building. This was not an unusual event. Many other schools in my electorate are using their facilities or showing off their facilities at community events. For the first time in some 40 years, buildings are being renewed and the children are responding to those new building by ensuring that their parents and friends come to see what is happening.

Cressy District High School had an open day recently based around the trout fishing in the district. It is a very popular area for fishing. Many youngsters were encouraged to take up fishing at this event because the prizes being offered were very big. The ‘big one’, Tracey, is worth about $10,000 if you can catch him. He has a big tag on him, but he has not been caught for many years, so the $10,000 is safe. Cressy High is my old school so of course I am always proud to go to that school and perform openings. The youngsters there had put a lot into the Cressy open day, taking part in the fishing fashion parade, operating the stalls around the school and greeting the guests as they came in. They knew a lot about the new buildings and expressed pride of belonging to me as I wandered about during that day.

I have also recently been to Molesworth, Meander, East Derwent, Deloraine and Maydena primary schools and the students’ pride and enthusiasm for their schools has been amazing. This program has been eye-opening for me in that many country kids in my day had to be dragged to school. Here are kids turning up at weekends and holidays to take part in all sorts of events. I believe that new buildings are putting new life into both teachers and students who have become proud of their schools. The community has started to take an interest again in what is happening in education and their schools in particular. I do not think that has happened for many years.

I have been very impressed at how the program has worked in Tasmania. Both federal and state governments have worked with the communities to get the program to work smoothly and achieve what the communities wanted. Perhaps our model in Tasmania worked better than any others, but we have had no schools refuse the program and I have only heard of two minor problems which were quickly sorted out.

If we could do the same in our other programs I do not think we would have any problems putting the federal government’s programs into place. I believe the key has been community involvement. Each school I have talked to has been intimately involved with the projects and what was being built, including the design, the fabric and everything else to do with the projects. The principals have been actively working with the builders to sort out day-to-day problems and have been very much part of the process. A lot of the building has been going on during school time, which has meant both teachers and students having to cope with the building site, but no-one seems to have worried.

I have even seen early childhood students out on the playground looking at the machinery—the diggers, trucks and other machinery—and seeing firsthand how the work is done. It was obviously a plus for little boys, but girls were there too. I have heard many renditions of ‘Bob the Builder’ at openings, with the actual workers on the site named in the song. Many of the kids there were wearing their hard hats and their safety vests, learning about work. This program is also teaching kids about work on the site, on the job. It is a great program. These projects have allowed many communities to build into their future. It has been very well done. (Time expired)