Stephen Jones (Throsby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I take this opportunity to congratulate one of the winners of this year’s ABC Heywire competition, Miss Babli Rawat, a student of Warrawong High School in my electorate of Throsby. Miss Rawat’s winning entry for the Heywire competition was a video telling the story of her arrival in Australia as a displaced person from northern India and her battle to make a new beginning here. The video cleverly matches her struggle to settle in to her new environment with that of establishing a permaculture garden at Warrawong High School which was striving to put down roots at the very same time that she was.

As members would be aware, Heywire is a great competition run by the ABC that enables young people from regional Australia to share their stories and opinions on issues that affect them and their lives. The 33 winning entrants from this year’s competition, including Miss Rawat, have received an all-expenses paid trip to the Heywire Youth Issues Forum to be held this month at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra.

I also take this opportunity to congratulate Miss Rawat’s teachers at Warrawong High School for their ongoing support of so many students who come to the school from a multicultural background with the challenges that this entails. The teachers do a wonderful job not only for Miss Rawat but also for the entire school community. Again, I congratulate Miss Rawat on her win and wish her all the very best for the future. (Time expired)