Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am honoured to represent a electorate that has a rich Chinese heritage—in fact, it's the third-largest in all of the seats in the House of Representatives. Many of us go through the logistics of getting schoolchildren to school five days a week, but many of the Chinese residents in my electorate send their children to school on weekends as well. I had the honour of visiting many of those schools.

The first was the Chinese Language School, which is hosted at Blackburn High School. It's led by Principal Ken Su. The school has grown to 300 students in just over six years, and I saw them, from all age groups, working hard on a weekend. I then went to the Formosa Chinese School in Doncaster East and spoke with Principal Mariana Liou. There is not only an academic focus at the Formosa Chinese School but a values focus as well, on the students caring for each other and being good people and good citizens. Given its strong reputation, the school has grown from 90 to over 300 student. That's obviously a credit to the principal and all of the teachers and volunteers. I was also struck by all of the parents who were there making sandwiches and food for the kids in the break. I also joined in a dragon boat festival and was proud to have come second in a race at the school. We should have come first!

The Chinese Fellowship Chinese School was the third school that I went to. That has three campuses, and the one in my electorate meets at Templestowe College. It seeks to promote friendship and social development through Chinese language education. Ms Yali Shao is the principal and has spent over 30 years teaching and establishing this institution along with my friend Philip Cui, who has privately contributed to many of the resources. Both of their efforts, and their dedication to teaching, are inspiring.

I still have two schools to meet: the New Chinese Language and Culture School and the New Century School, which is hosted at Doncaster Secondary College. I want to thank each of those who contribute to these schools and the teachers who put in that effort. They teach during the week and then they come and give up their time to do this on the weekend. It goes without saying that without the generous support of the parents and volunteers, and private support, none of this would be possible. It says to me that we should be very proud of our Chinese community because their hard work and dedication to improving themselves and their children is really inspiring, and it's the sort of thing that brings our country forward. I was really proud to visit those five schools and look forward to visiting the other two. We can all agree that the value of education cannot be overstated, and you can never have too much education. We should always be proud of being Australian but also proud of where we came from, and that's exactly what these schools do.