Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Indeed, Senator Farrell, it is a very good school, and I thank you for your contribution. Members of Cold Fusion are: Jane Burton, team manager and graphic designer; Jake Grant, resource manager; Michelle Lennon, manufacturing engineer; Henry Lynch, industry relations; Thomas Agars, innovation manager; and Spencer Olds, design engineer. They were all very successful and diligent in their approach. Earlier, during the state finals, Cold Fusion won seven of the eight awards. They were crowned state champions, and they won best engineered car, the innovation award, outstanding industry collaboration, best portfolio, fastest qualifying lap and the grand prix. Cold Fusion were also very successful at the national competition, winning the overall award in the professional class. Cold Fusion will now head to the world finals later this year to represent their school, their state and their country in an exciting contest.

Of course none of this success was achieved without a number of challenges. While designing the car, the team faced these challenges with diligence, applied the skills that they had learned and learned some new skills along the way to overcome them. They had to design the fastest possible car while complying with a rigorous set of rules, just like Formula One. They had to ensure that the car was strong enough and light enough to race. They had to add lines of computer code when writing numerically controlled codes for the car's machinery. This was not just putting a couple of wheels on a block of balsa wood. It was a diligent and comprehensive process that these young men and women did with aplomb.

The positive experience for Cold Fusion is reflected by the entire F1 in Schools program. Through F1 in Schools students are able to work with people from industry and get a firsthand look at what it is like to work in engineering. Attending the state and national finals provides them with a chance to meet with other teams and learn about different concepts and different designs. Now the students from Brighton Secondary School, the team Cold Fusion, will head to the world finals later this year to represent their school, their state and their country. I know they will do so with distinction, because they have already done those of us from South Australia very proud. I wish them all the best.