Ann Corcoran (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last Friday I attended a special assembly at Maralinga Primary School, in my electorate. The assembly was to present the school captains and house captains for 2006 with their badges. It was great to be part of this ceremony. The school captains at Maralinga Primary School for 2006 are Brendan Way and Robyn Parker. The house captains are Emir Curan and Lesina Lalotoa, for Allunga House; David Lam and Maja Kosic, for Boomori House; Danijel Lazic and Sonia Shen, for Doongara House; and Milenko Borojevic and Julie Nhem, for Trawalla House. I also presented a badge to Raymond Tong, who is a coopted member of the junior school council.

I was interested in the origins of the house names, and I learnt that they are Aboriginal words. Allunga means sun, and Allunga House’s colour is yellow. Boomori means wind, and Boomori House’s colour is green. Doongara means lightning, and Doongara House’s colour is red. Trawalla means rain, and Trawalla House’s colour is blue. I want to congratulate all of these students. They have been elected to be leaders at Maralinga for 2006, and I know that they will be taking their responsibilities seriously and that they will do a good job. After the assembly, we all went into the staffroom for a special morning tea with the students, their parents and the teachers, and I had a chance to talk to some of the parents. They were very proud of their children, and rightly so.