Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the school presentation evenings in Townsville that come about at the end of every year. One of the joys of being a local member is to attend as many of the school presentation evenings and speech nights as you possibly can. It is a great way of showing support for your constituency. A lot of them were held in our last week of sittings here, but I was able to get to Cathedral School last week and St Patrick's on the weekend.

Cathedral School's event was the junior school graduation and saw the grade 6 students get up—from the orchestra, to the wind ensemble, to having the whole school on stage doing a song that I have no idea what it was about. They all had actions and dance moves far beyond my boarding school two-step, with the biting of the bottom lip. They were a joy to all of the parents.

Most importantly, the school was able to get their whole presentation evening start on time at 6.30 and they were out of there by 8.30. It was a spectacularly run evening, although the school principal, Mr Ian Gamack, and the junior school principal, Mr Paul Taylor, both used the opportunity to drop a large load onto their local federal member. When Cathedral School was in Canberra I happened to get punted out of question time that day, and they used me as an example of what not to do.

So, to all the schools in Townsville I had the opportunity to visit, I thank you so much.