Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Action, Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to pay tribute to the work of the Insight Education Centre for the Blind and Vision Impaired in Melbourne. In 2010 one of the tasks that I set for myself at the beginning of this term of parliament was to do all that I could to help establish a school for vision impaired children in Melbourne. The genesis of this task came from the work of Alan and Maria Lachman. They live in my electorate at Pearcedale and have a beautiful young daughter, Francesca. She is blind, but she is an amazing young woman. The parents made the point to me that, despite the fact that there were more than 80 specialist schools in Victoria, there were no schools providing specialist education for vision impaired children. It is almost inconceivable that, of all the different ailments and impairments which have given rise to special needs education, there was nothing to give parents the option of a dedicated school for the vision impaired or the blind. So I was delighted, after working with the family and spending an enormous amount of time with them and, much more importantly, supporting the literarily thousands of hours that Alan and Maria and all of their board and supporters have put in, that the Insight Education Centre for the Blind and Vision Impaired was officially opened in February this year.

The centre began on 4 February and is currently hosted by Beaconhills College in Pakenham. Construction of stage 1 of what will be a state-of-the-art primary school is currently underway at Monash University's Berwick campus, and Monash University has been exceptionally generous in providing the land and that opportunity for the centre. The curriculum, which will be extended further, currently focuses on academic, sensory, social, Braille and literacy, assistive and adaptive technology, orientation and mobility, especially with the support of Guide Dogs Victoria, and sporting and artistic opportunities as well as other complementary skills. These are all aimed at providing an independent and self-directed lifestyle for blind or vision impaired students. The new centre of excellence will go still further. It will give curriculum coaching for secondary students, a life management program, an early learning program for nought to six-year-olds, and parent support.

The whole Insight project is a testament to what parents with vision and communities with cooperation can achieve. So to Alan and Maria: you are commended on the floor of the parliament of Australia for an extraordinary dedication to Francesca and you have made an even bigger commitment and gift to children and parents who face the great challenges of a vision impairment.