Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over the winter recess, I had the chance to visit three local schools among the many schools in my electorate, all very different and all quite amazing. The suburb of Baldivis within the Brand electorate has been one of the fastest-growing in the country, and new families and residents continue to choose to call it home. It is no surprise why if you look at the nearly new Baldivis Secondary College and the wealth of learning opportunities the fantastic staff are providing for local students there. I was delighted to attend a performance at the college by Bell Shakespeare, Australia's national theatre company which specialises, of course, in the word of the Bard, William Shakespeare. Bell Shakespeare's learning ensemble, The Players, bring Shakespeare into the classroom—and, boy, did they bring it with a formidable and grim Macbeth. More than 400 years after Shakespeare dipped his quill in his ink pot, lessons can still be learnt in this place about seeking power for power's sake—but I'm not going to dwell on that today as I acknowledge the great work being done across my community in its schools. I would like to thank the great team of teachers and staff at Baldivis Secondary College for welcoming me to their school to enjoy the great performance by Bell Shakespeare of 'the Scottish play'.

I often visit the many high schools and primary schools in my electorate to meet with students studying politics and law, as well as students in general humanities and social sciences classes. It's always an honour to talk to them about my role as a federal representative and more broadly about the role of the modern parliament of Australia. It's always a pleasure to visit Gilmore College, and I would like to thank personally Ms Lesley Brown, one of the college's dedicated humanities and social sciences teachers, for again inviting me to visit the college to discuss politics and law with the terrific students.

The third school I would like to talk about and acknowledge is St Vincent's School in Parmelia. The school was first founded in 1956 in Kwinana to support the children of the workforce that built the BP refinery. And even though it moved site a number of years ago, it continues to be an institution in the local community. I can tell you its local fete is not to be missed!

I had the pleasure of speaking with the year 5s and 6s. They are a credit to their school, asking questions and making me very welcome. I would like to thank St Vincent's and the assistant principal, Jayson Peacock, for inviting me to this beautiful school in amongst the eucalypt trees. I'm looking forward very much to this year's fete.

What is so very pleasing to see at these visits is how students instinctively understand that 'the political is the personal' and vice versa. Students asked me about the cost of airfares, because in this economic climate in my electorate I can tell you that children are very aware of the cost of things—from daily groceries to their holidays, which not many of them get to go on, quite frankly. This is more so now than ever when so many local families, nearly 10,000, in fact, have had their household budgets decimated when this Liberal government stood by and took away their penalty rates.