Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to mention a number of very exciting developments that have recently occurred in the schools in my electorate of Greenway. The Greenway electorate has benefited greatly from Labor's record investment in schools through the Building the Education Revolution program. Over the past two weeks I have had the absolute privilege of officially opening brand-new facilities at no less than six Greenway schools, thanks to the federal government's record investment in education. Toongabbie West Public School, Seven Hills North Public School, Bert Oldfield Public School, Vardys Road Public School, Barnier Public School and Mary Immaculate Primary School have all recently officially opened their new multipurpose halls, new classrooms and school refurbishments in what have been very exciting times for schools in my electorate.

I would like specifically to praise the efforts of all the school communities and especially mention the hard work of their principals, including Brian Firth, Denise Prowse, Libby Gledhill, Amanda Connelly, Rod Gibbs and Paul Devlin. I believe one of the best parts of being the member for Greenway is visiting the fantastic schools in my electorate. I am extremely proud to be the member of a government that invested so much in the future of this country by investing in its schools. I am extremely privileged to represent in this place so many wonderful schools and school children.

Nobel prize winner William Yeats said 'Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.' I know that teachers and principals in the Greenway electorate inspire their students in this way every day. During these recognition ceremonies all school principals, as well as parents, support staff and young people themselves have expressed to me their sincerest gratitude for receiving such a significant investment in their school's infrastructure.

Until a Labor government chose to stimulate the economy during the GFC by investing in our young people, some of these schools had not seen any new developments in school buildings since they were first established, some of them more than 50 years ago. By investing in education we are indeed investing in the future of this country. I have mentioned on a number of occasions in this place the power of education to enable our young people to reach their full potential. This government, through the BER program and also through another great passion of mine, the National Broadband Network, is affording our young people the best possible opportunities indeed to reach this potential. Thanks to the NBN, all Australian schools, TAFEs, universities and higher education institutions will have the connectivity they need to develop and collaborate on innovative and flexible educational services and resources, to extend online learning resources to the home and workplace and facilities to offer students and learners who cannot access courses via traditional means the opportunity of more online virtual learning. The schools in the Greenway electorate will benefit greatly from these developments and I look forward to seeing these schools continue to grow into the future.

In closing, I would like to mention the exceptional academic performance of another fantastic Greenway School, Patrician Brothers College in Blacktown. In their NAPLAN tests for 2011 they achieved outstanding results in both year 7 and year 9, which saw them top the Parramatta diocese. I praise the work of principal Santo Passarello and all St Pat's staff and congratulate their students on this wonderful achievement.