Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to make mention of a number of school leaders in the Casey electorate. As all members here know, leadership presentations are an important time for our local schools, and last Friday I had the privilege of congratulating school leaders and presenting certificates and badges at their assemblies. First, to Ruskin Park Primary School in Croydon, I have had the pleasure of being at this leadership presentation every year since my election back in 2001 with principal Elle May Laikve. I want to make mention of the school captains, Emma Williamson and Josh Tilker; the house captains for Red House, Margot Toynton and Connor Tisch; Blue House, Maija Siljander and Jaydyn Carter McMurtry; Green House, Alicia Woodman and Alan Lopez; and Gold House, Wendy Wang and Cooper Foulis.

The Casey electorate, Mr Deputy Speaker, as you well know, is a very diverse electorate of about two and half thousand kilometres of outer suburbs and country areas encompassing the Yarra Valley. Later in the morning I travelled to Dixons Creek Primary School in the heart of the Yarra Valley, a small, historic country primary school that is very much the hub of the local community there. Dixons Creek is an area that came into the Casey electorate following the redistribution after the 2010 election. Those members from Victoria, two of whom are with me here today, will know that Dixons Creek was one of those areas affected by the Black Saturday fires. It is north of Yarra Glen on the way to Yea. The principal, Sharon Walker, and her staff are obviously doing a fantastic job. The captain, Harrison Phelan, and the vice-captain, Tamika Fossey, were presented with their leadership certificates and badges at the special school assembly to pay tribute to them. I want to mention the great work that the teachers are doing in those schools, their parents, and their school leaders who have the job for the year, trying to make their schools the very best they can be.