Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This morning I had the absolute pleasure of welcoming the kids from Mother of God School, who had come here to our parliament in Canberra all the way from Ardeer in Melbourne's west, in my electorate. It is a very difficult journey for a school like Mother of God to do and I congratulate them on taking the initiative to come here to Canberra.

They came to Canberra, and they brought with them questions about our democracy and questions about this parliament. They also brought with them this folder of persuasive writing on the need for more renewable energy in Australia to fight climate change. Michael and Noor presented this folder to me and the arguments that they had: arguments in favour of hydro, solar, biomass—or, as they called it, stinky poo—geothermal, tidal energy and wind energy. I talked to them about the need for our parliament to look more like their classroom and more like our community—to have more diverse representation, more diversity of cultural backgrounds and more diversity of gender. I was particular impressed when Chiara and Monika promised me that they would follow in the long tradition of female leadership in politics from Melbourne's west, a tradition forged by leaders like Julia Gillard, Joan Kirner and Nicola Roxon, my predecessor in Gillibrand. I promised those kids at Mother of God Primary School that while I was in this parliament I would fight to ensure that every child at Mother of God had every opportunity to reach their full potential, to ensure that Mother of God Primary School and Ardeer had the funding needed to ensure that their kids had the same opportunities as kids born on the other side of town, and that they could reach their full potential regardless of who their parents were or where they were born.