Garth Hamilton (Groom, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Spoiler alert! One of the following names will be the future member for Groom: Hayley, Emmy, Penny, Annabelle, Emily, Gracie and Sofie. No, I am not giving away early retirement plans! I am simply heralding the next generation of great leaders coming through Groom, who I met in the Year 12 legal studies class at Fairholme College. This is a great group of kids, and I'm sure everyone around this chamber would agree that speaking to kids about our parliament and our democracy is one of the most important things we do.

I want to take this opportunity to repeat to them, and to any other kids listening, the message I passed on. It was a message that came from Ron Boswell, a good friend who we recently laid to rest. It is: no matter what your beliefs are, get involved in politics. Kids, get involved. Protesting is fun, and it's cool. You get to march with people and you get to wear some cool shirts. Kids, get out there. Learn the issues. Find the policy levers that you need to pull to make change happen. Build a mandate. Learn how to go and converse with people who disagree with you and work together with them. Kids, get out there and understand how democracy works and how you can make a change. This is such an important thing. Politics is about doing the right thing. Kids, don't be afraid of the appearance of conflict that you're going to see in a few minutes here, in QT; across the chamber, there are strong bonds between people who want to get things done and want to make good things happen for the Australian people. You should believe that. Watch that, and believe that.

See this speech in context