Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to talk about the Hasluck Leadership Awards, which are in their second year. The Hasluck Leadership Awards, named in honour of two renowned Western Australians, Sir Paul Hasluck and Dame Alexandra Hasluck, will again be a vehicle for inspiring and developing the leadership potential of young people. The awards are intended to continue into the future irrespective of the political persuasion of the sitting member. The Hasluck Leadership Awards are open to all year 11 high school students in the electorate. The awards provide a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for students who demonstrate exceptional leadership qualities to travel to Canberra, tread the corridors of power and experience life in the heart of Australian politics. To enter, students must intend to complete their year 12 studies in a high school in Hasluck and demonstrate to the panel their high-level involvement in their school through their participation in the school's nonacademic activities. This may be demonstrated through their involvement with school or student councils, sporting groups and clubs or other voluntary activities. The panel also want to see how they perform outside their schools and that through their activities they demonstrate care and respect for others, involvement with voluntary work within the community or active membership of a community group or organisation.

Last year Joanne Pryce and Joshua Bretnall were the recipients of the 2011 Hasluck Leadership Awards, and they travelled to Canberra with me in August. They described the experience of visiting the capital and meeting with our nation's leaders as 'life-changing' and 'a learning experience second to none'. Joanne and Josh have started year 12 and are looking forward to actively becoming involved in their local school community and with national issues. For the 2012 awards I made a couple of small changes to improve on the process and running of the awards. The first was that each school could nominate two students—one boy and one girl—and, in the case of private schools with all boys or all girls, they could nominate two students as well. This increased the pool of nominees and gave more students the opportunity to take part in the awards.

All the nominees will participate in a workshop on Saturday, 9 June where three independent judges will evaluate their presentations and the nominees will answer a few questions and give a two-minute impromptu speech. The winners, one boy and one girl, will be announced on Friday, 15 June at the Agonis centre in Gosnells at 5 pm.

The finalists in the 2012 Hasluck Leadership Awards are: from Governor Stirling Senior High School, Nicholas Williams; from Guildford Grammar School, Mitchell Papas; from Guildford Grammar School, Jackson Passeri; from Kalamunda Senior High School, Bill Todd; from La Salle College, David Vella; from Lesmurdie Senior High School, Jordan Fraser; from Lumen Christi College, Luke Hale; from Southern River College, Matthew Capper; from Thornlie Senior High School, Lachlan McDonald; from Kalamunda Senior High School, Sarah Hopkins; from La Salle College, Chloe Placzek, from Senior High School, Rachael Honey; from Lumen Christi College, Kaylish Menzie; from Southern River College, Shani Preedy; from St Brigid's College, Amy Thomasson; and, from St Brigid's College, Caitlin Grehan. These young people, irrespective of whether they win an award or not, are the bright future of this country. Too often we only hear the negative stories about youth and do not get to listen to the positive voices that are drowned out amongst the negative news reports featuring young Australians.

It would not be possible to achieve the aims of any program such as this without corporate sponsorship. I acknowledge the companies who acted as sponsors, as they allow me to realise the goal of recognising our next generation of leaders in the community. Once again I am pleased to announce that Qantas is a major sponsor along with David Goode from Westate Finance, the Pilbara Access Group, the Damien Cole Group, BGC Australia, the Swan Chamber of Commerce, Westrac and the Echo newspaper. Sponsorship is critical if we are to deliver programs such as this to the community, and I thank each organisation for taking the time and effort to participate in the Hasluck Leadership Awards in 2012. I look forward to updating the House in the near future about the results of the awards evening and recognising the year 11 boy and girl who have won the 2012 Hasluck Leadership Awards. It provides an incredible opportunity to acknowledge and encourage young people to look at the contribution that they can make to both their school and the community in which they live and play. In that sense, regardless of who is the occupant of the seat of Hasluck, I hope in the future to see that the sponsors will take on the role along with other designated groups to foster the qualities that are evident in young people. This will give them that encouragement. (Time expired)