Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Congratulations to Greenwood College year 8 debating team—Cyrene Almodovar, Asmaa Hameed, Konrad Dumpleton, Jacquie Walters, Ann Cao and their teacher Ela Amor Robertson—for making the grand finals of Western Australia's school debating competition. The debating team is a true reflection of our multicultural society. Around 40 per cent of students at Greenwood College have a language background other than English and the school has an EALD program. It was the students who came up with the idea of setting up a debating team to improve their language skills. An ABC report featured Asmaa Hameed, who only knew a few words of English when her family arrived in Perth from Iraq. In just over two years, she is now part of a team that is winning debates against some of Perth's most elite teams. Cyrene Almodovar, the team's lead speaker, said, 'There is a lot that we bring to the table in terms of how we view the world and different views.'

I spoke to their teacher on Tuesday morning, and the team had a debate on Tuesday night against PLC, debating a very topical issue: whether or not employees should hire or fire people based on their social media posts. I was so happy this morning to learn that the team won, achieving their ninth consecutive win, which puts them into the grand finals. I am really looking forward to meeting them on Tuesday, and I'm sure I will be as inspired by them as their teachers and their classmates are. Congratulations Asmaa, Cyrene, Jacquie, Ann and Konrad.

See this speech in context