Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I'm sure all who work in this building know, we regularly have visitors from primary schools across Australia coming here to Canberra to visit this place and to see our wonderful democracy at work. Over the course of this week I've had the pleasure of having a chat and brief tour with some 220 students visiting from three schools from my electorate of Ballarat, in addition to the Parliamentary Education Office, their hospitality, as well as other parts of their official program. These students were from Bacchus Marsh, Mount Pleasant and Darley primary schools. Like each school group that comes here, they were impeccably behaved, I can assure their parents.

These school visits to Canberra are a wonderful opportunity for all of these kids. It gives them firsthand experience of some of the most central sites of our national life, whether it be here at Parliament House, the War Memorial, the National Gallery or Questacon. It's often the first experience these kids have with Canberra, and it teaches them about how our system of government works, how laws are made and about our history. Beyond being an enlightening experience for the schoolkids, I also find that these visits are a valuable experience for me as a parliamentarian. Personally, I always relish the opportunity to meet with these children when they come up here to Canberra. It reminds me of home. It reminds me that, while over time we may grow to see this place as our workplace, it is far more than that. It is architecturally stunning, it has beautiful gardens and artworks wherever you look, and we who work here have both the honour and the responsibility of making decisions that affect all people across Australia. Meeting with these kids and even just seeing them as they walk around the building should remind each of us that this is, of course, the people's house and that it belongs to these children just as much as it belongs to the rest of us who work here.

I particularly want to acknowledge the fantastic work that the Parliamentary Education Office do in taking children through an education experience and the fantastic resources they have on their website. I had cause to ring the PEO this week because I know one of my schools has a kid with ASD coming up soon and I wanted to get some visual aids to give to his mum to help her prepare him to lower his anxiety when he comes here. Within an hour, they made a whole raft of information available to me. I also want to thank the press gallery. We often take our school groups through there. In particular, the staff of Channel Nine and Channel Ten have taken kids into the green room and filmed them. Again, it really makes the interaction between the press, the government and the parliament and what kids are seeing and experiencing all the more special. I know they're very busy, but it's very generous of them.

Seeing these kids on their visits should remind us that the decisions we make here affect every one of these children just as much as they affect everyone across the country. I hope the kids enjoyed their visit this week. It was a pleasure to host them.