Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This year, 27 exceptionally gifted high school students, chosen from 150,000 students nationally, represented Australia at various International Olympiads. Of these 27 students, five were from the Parramatta area. I was lucky enough to meet with these five students from James Ruse Agricultural College last week. There were five chosen to represent Australia and all five were medal winners.

Kevin Xian won the silver medal at the International Mathematics Olympiad in Hong Kong. Maxwell Ding and Andre Lo won silver medals at the International Biology Olympiad in Hanoi, Vietnam. Simon Yang won the bronze in Tbilisi, Georgia at the International Chemistry Olympiad. And Daniel Ho won the bronze medal in Mie, Japan at the International Earth Science Olympiad.

Up until 2013, these students would have received the Australian Student Prize which consisted of $2,000, a certificate and much deserved recognition. I know that the cash prize would have greatly assisted their families in the costs associated with their travel. The Australian Student Prize was cut to $1,000 in 2014 and then abolished altogether in 2015.

These wonderful young men and I spoke at length about our education system, and they wanted so much more from it. For all their success at these olympiads, they wanted much more than they got. They were wonderful young men. We talked about music, we talked about space mining and we talked about phosphorus. I also met their mums, who were incredibly proud mothers. I wish these young men all the best for their future.