Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I'd like to congratulate and wish well in their future endeavours the students of the Central West Leadership Academy based out of Dubbo in my electorate. They have won the Future Problem Solving national finals and qualified for the international competition in the United States. Students from the Central West Leadership Academy placed first and second in their respective categories in the Future Problem Solving national finals this month. The academy's year 9 team placed first in Australia for their community problem-solving entry, Take One Step, where they created a student representative council training manual for student leadership teams to use to combat sexual harassment at school. Year 9 academy student Noah Randell came second in the nation in scenario writing, a creative-writing competition where the story must be set 20 years in the future. Noah wrote a scenario about personalised medicine and its impacts on those who lack access to emerging technology. It's very comforting to know that these students are thinking to the future. They have a positive outlook for their communities. Both academy entries will represent Australia at the Future Problem Solving international finals at the University of Massachusetts in the USA from 8 to 10 June 2022.

The principal of the academy, Ms Mandi Randell, was extremely proud of the students' efforts and the outcome they achieved, saying, 'Our school values the six Cs of critical thinking: creativity, citizenship, communication, coding and technology, and collaboration.' I would like to congratulate the students of the academy, and I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Mandi Randell, who has worked so hard to bring this is academy together. She understands that you teach students to their ability, not to their age. The school has shown enormous success, for a small school in western New South Wales, to compete against the large sandstone schools in capital cities.

In the final few seconds I have left, I'd like to acknowledge that tomorrow will be last day of work for Kim Bartley, who has been a journalist for 40 years—a large part of that for the Daily Liberal in Dubbo. Kim has shown great passion and diligence in bringing the stories that matter to the communities of Dubbo and the far west. She has a well-deserved retirement coming her way. Kim, all the best. Congratulations on a job well done.