Gavin Pearce (Braddon, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health, Aged Care and Indigenous Health Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's with great pride that I inform the House today that the Leighland Christian School in the electorate of Braddon are international champions. The school's Lego robotics team, the Techno Warriors, have just returned from the first Lego League Razorback Open Invitational in the United States. There they competed against the best of the best from across the world over seven different challenges. Leighland's team of robotics superstars won two sections and was placed fourth in another. To put icing on the cake, their robotics teacher and coach, Jacob McNab, was introduced to the member mentor hall of fame.

But this small school on the north-west coast of Tasmania isn't done yet. This month the junior team, the Techno Turtles, will head off to the Asia-Pacific open championship to compete against 50 teams from around the world. The team has developed a concept robotics solar panel hydroelectricity-generating turtle that can be launched in local areas during emergency events in order to provide power.

My visit to Leighland Christian School reconfirmed what I've already known: that sitting in those classrooms right across those rural and remote areas of the north-west and west coasts and King Island in Tasmania are some of the best, brightest and most grounded kids in the entire world, and all they need is a fair go.