Tim Hammond (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm delighted to inform this place that, just before returning to parliament, I was able to participate in Schools Tree Day in one of my local primary schools, the wonderful Highgate Primary School, on 28 July. For those who aren't aware, Schools Tree Day is a fantastic initiative. It appears to me to be the evolution of the good old-fashioned Arbor Day back in the day, but it is a terrific initiative taken by Planet Ark in conjunction with local businesses. In this case, City Toyota provided the sponsorship to provide hundreds and hundreds of native plants for the students at Highgate Primary School to plant to celebrate Schools Tree Day.

National Tree Day was created by Planet Ark in 1996 as the focal point for a nationwide campaign to promote community tree planting. It engages schools, local councils and communities. Toyota and its national network of dealers became a principal sponsor in 2000 and have worked with Planet Ark ever since. Each year, over 200,000 Australian school students participate in National Tree Day, and it is a cracker. We were all out there—me and all of the kids, led from the front by the school's wonderful principal, ‎Stephen Ivey, and his noble associate principals, Sheri, Danika, Gerard, Liana and Donna—getting our hands dirty in the most constructive way. We were digging, we were planting and we were fertilising and making a wonderful school even better.

What was fantastic about National Tree Day is that, when I looked around at all of these kids, they were not only planting new plants to take a bit more pride in their school, to make the school look a bit better and to participate in something constructive in relation to addressing climate change; they were also engaging with each other. This is a school which has an incredible amount of diversity, and it brings in kids from all nations, of all types and of all backgrounds. To see them all pitching in together planting trees was an absolute sight to behold.

What's even better about all of that is that the position of the trees, as they were being planted, directed by Principal Ivey, in a masterful way, led to a new school block. The new school block, which is right on the corner of Lincoln Street there in Highgate, is about to be opened, and it is an absolute tribute to everyone there at the school, the way in which it integrates the environment with the community to make the learning environment for these kid the best that it can possibly be. It may well be that when we were taking the photo, I got slightly carried away with the 'oh, what a feeling' Toyota leap. I haven't lived it down. But I tell you what: we had a great time. For anyone who's in any electorate in the federal seat of Perth, come through and have a look at what these great kids have done for National Tree Day at Highgate Primary School. Well done to them all.