Mal Brough (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Whilst travelling up to Flaxton the other day to visit the Blackall Range Care Group AGM, I had a bit of time to spare so I dropped into a local school right on the boundary of Fisher and Fairfax. It is a country school called Chevallum State School. Given the comments of the member for Lalor a moment ago, it is somewhat reflective. Chevallum is a little school with 500 students. The moment you walk in you sense the affection and the passion that everyone has for the school.

Here is the interesting part—of the 500 students, only 50 are from the direct catchment. The other 450 students travel some considerable distance, as far as Caboolture in the south and Noosa in the north, which, for those who are familiar with the territory, is a long way. When you learn these things, you have to ask, 'Why?' Having spoken to and spent a few minutes with the principal, it became very clear that here was a school with great passion and great principles and that is based on there being a very supportive community. I digress and say that, now that I am a grandparent, but not of school-age children, whenever a parent says to me, 'How do I know whether a school is any good?' I say, 'Go and spend five minutes with the principal; you will know straightaway what is important to them.' I can tell you that the Chevallum State School meets that test.

Having briefly turned up there, I was delighted to meet Ben, the president of the P & C Association. They were having a wrap-up from the strawberry fest that they had had on the Friday night, so it was a great opportunity to catch up with a bunch of parents and talk about some of the issues. They have some pretty big issues, and I want to canvass one of those here tonight. The other issue, briefly, is one of safety, and I hope that the Black Spot Program the Commonwealth government runs is going to be able to help slow the traffic and help protect the children in this country town.

The particular issue they wanted to raise with me, since I had dropped in, goes back to 2007 and the Howard years when we introduced the school chaplaincy program. I do not think there would be a person in this House who would not have heard a story from the schools in their electorate about the positive impact this program has had both in the school community as a whole and on individual lives. This particular school has chosen very deliberately, because of the inclusive nature of its students, to engage a welfare officer as opposed to a religious based chaplain. They said, 'It was a purposeful act to ensure that we met inclusive values. Our community feels there is a risk that a religious based person may inadvertently exclude some of the community members.' I respect that right. We talked about it for a while. When going to the last election, the Abbott government committed to funding the chaplaincy program through the next four years. But, sadly, that will mean that these people, who are skilled welfare workers and youth workers, will not be engaged in this program.

I want to bring to the House's attention two examples of the changes that this welfare officer has made to the life of individuals and hence to the community of Chevallum. She talked about a female student who was referred to a youth work program via the guidance officer and who was presenting with emergent adolescent risk taking, concerns of self-harm and experiencing a breakdown in family relationship functioning. This was resulting in the student frequently absconding from home. The youth worker, working alongside existing support services within the school, was able to provide a level of support that not only re-engaged the student with her family and resulted in her returning home but has meant that she has now successfully made the transition to high school which can be so challenging for many.

The second example was a male student who moved to the school 18 months ago. He had experienced significant difficulties in a previous school with self-harming behaviour—absconding, risk taking and violence—and we all know where that can lead to. But again, through the work of the youth worker, they prioritised the development of a mutual respect relationship with the student which would underpin the potential successes in his ability to self-manage the manifestations of his emotional state. These are just two examples of something which many, many people would be aware of in this House. There was a positive outcome here again.

Ben Calder, the president of the school, is asking the government—and I ask on his behalf—that the minister and the executive think again about how we may be able to accommodate these fine people who are doing good work and meeting the needs of these schools. Clearly, when people travel so far—nearly nine out of 10 of those students are travelling that distance—they really do have something special to offer.