House debates

Monday, 30 November 2015

Constituency Statements

Solomon Electorate: Capital Grants Program, Solomon Electorate: Australian Football League

10:51 am

Photo of Natasha GriggsNatasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of contacting three school principals in my electorate—Holy Family Catholic Primary School in Karama, Holy Spirit Catholic Primary School in Wanguri and O'Loughlin Catholic College also in Karama—to let the principals know that they all have projects that are going to be funded under the Capital Grants Program.

This program provides funding to assist non-government primary and secondary schools to improve capital infrastructure where they otherwise would not have access to sufficient funds or in terms of capital resources. The Holy Family Catholic Primary School will receive $136,500 for the refurbishment of the student and staff toilets. The Holy Spirit Catholic Primary School will receive $16,900 for the creation of a SunSmart outdoor learning and play space. O'Loughlin Catholic College will receive $300,000 for the construction of three new general learning areas of support to assist the continued growth of enrolments in their school.

All three projects will be beneficial to each individual school, their students and the wider community. I look forward to visiting all three schools in the not too distant future to watch the progress of these projects. All are scheduled for delivery in 2016.

While I am on my feet, I would like to place on record my congratulations to two Territorians who will start their AFL careers in the new year. Congratulations to Ryan Nyhuis of the 2015 NT Thunder premiership team. He has been selected by the Fremantle Dockers in the rookie draft at pick 34. His mum, Glenda, and father, Michael, must be so proud, just like the rest of us are. Congratulations also to Daniel Rioli, who was selected by the Richmond football club at pick 15—and it is another Rioli making Territorians proud.

What is really interesting is that Ryan is actually living in the territory and it is not very often that Territorians get picked from Darwin. So this is something to be proud of. We are very confident that both these young men are going to have fantastic AFL careers and we are very proud. It will not be too long before the Territory has its own AFL team. We have such enormous talent that is on display so often in the AFL. So I wish these young men a very happy and healthy career.