Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I would like to speak about two very significant events that have occurred in my electorate. Firstly, I congratulate three local outstanding students who have excelled academically and, secondly, I congratulate Craigieburn Library, which has been recognised with an international award.

Three students of Sirius College in Broadmeadows—Saba Gul, Ridvan Atlihan and Halil Erciyas—were amongst the top 500 students across the nation to receive an Australian student prize in the 2013 academic year. The Australian Student Prize recognises academic excellence and achievement of students in senior secondary years. In recognition of their efforts, Saba, Ridvan and Halil have received a certificate and $2,000 in prize money from the Australian government. Saba and Ridvan both achieved a near-perfect score of 99.9 and 99.8—that was their ATAR score—in the 2013 VCE results and were among the top 21 students in Victoria. They have also received the all-round high achiever awards at the 20th annual Premier's VCE awards ceremony.

Sirius College coordinating principal, Mehmet Koca, said the college was very proud of its high achievers who have succeeded and excelled in their community. They have made their school and family very proud and we thank their families in particular. I also want to make the point that all three students have now graduated and are enrolled in biomedicine at the University of Melbourne. All three are third generation Australians of Muslim faith and of Turkish background. In particular, they make their community very proud.

I am also very proud of the fact that our library, the Craigieburn Global Village Library, has been named the International Public Library of the Year at an awards ceremony which was held in France on 17 August this year. The library, which is located within the Hume Global Learning Centre, was able to beat libraries in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Denmark to take out the inaugural International Public Library of the Year 2014, an award which is given by the Danish Agency for Culture. The award has been sponsored by the Danish Agency for Culture and is established as part of a model program for public libraries which aims to generate new ideas about how the design of public libraries can change to meet the changing needs of today's society .

I am very proud of the Hume Global Learning Village. It is an icon in our electorate. It was an infrastructure project that received $9.5 million from the former Labor government. It is now up and running and provides an incredible service to our community, not just among young people but right across the spectrum from the nursery to the third age. Congratulations, Hume Global Learning Village.