Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is not surprising that one of my favourite roles in the position as member for Lalor is visiting schools. I visit schools for assemblies, to meet with student leaders, to have coffees with the principals and to do flag presentations and awards. But in the last few weeks I have had two very special visits where I have been invited into classrooms in schools to talk to students about our democracy and to talk to students about civics and citizenship. I visited St Clare's primary school, Truganina, and I visited Manor Lakes College, Wyndham Vale, in the past few weeks. I would like to thank St Clare's principal, Andrew Leighton, and senior teacher Bernadette O'Regan for the invitation, as well as principal Jason Smallwood and leading teacher Anthony Sabatino from Manor Lakes College in Wyndham Vale for the invitation to actually get involved and listen to and talk to students about our great democracy.

I think it is worth mentioning in this place how literate are in the hallmarks of our democracy and the tenets of our system of government. They are incredibly connected to their learning. I met inquisitive children with a strong basis of knowledge about the levels of government and our system of government. It is a privilege to meet these young people in their classrooms, and it never fails to bear upon me the importance of our role in the House of Representatives in representing those communities.