Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am honoured today to read a speech by 11-year-old Emerson who attends Littlehampton Primary School in my electorate. Emerson took part in the 2023 Raise Our Voice competition, which encourages young people to consider what change they would like to make to make Australia a better place for future generations. He wrote about stopping plastic in the ocean, and many in my community know this is an area of great passion for me as well.

Emerson wrote:

I think that there should be more awareness on the subject and there should be more programs about the plastic problem in the sea. Even if there were more days to come together and clean the beaches and oceans, this act would be small but powerful. As a motivation to this idea maybe there could be a competition at each beach to see who could pick up the most plastic, and the winner would get rewarded at the end.

It is a very important subject and if we do not do something about it there might be catastrophic consequences in later years. It makes me wonder if technology could play a part in cleaning up the oceans, such as using drones and computers to locate the plastic and bring back small amounts back to land.

In my opinion we should also be trying to reduce the amount of plastic being used, I think that it will help the situation.

Thank you, Emerson.

This year I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to so many of my students across Mayo and visiting my schools, and I've been quite taken aback by the depth of civics knowledge that my students have. We do a mock parliament when I visit my schools. We have dress-ups and we even have our version of a mace. It's incredibly important that we teach civics to our students. Our young people need to know about the systems of government and parliament so that hopefully, one day, they too will be inspired to be part of the process and perhaps put their hand forward to be elected at the local, state or federal level.

I would like to mention some of those schools I visited this year: Saint Michael's Primary School; Kangaroo Island community school—both campuses—with our Speaker; Coromandel Valley Kindergarten; Hills Christian Community School; Lobethal Community Kindergarten; Clarendon Primary School; Mount Barker Waldorf School; Basket Range Primary School; Tatachilla Lutheran school; Callington Primary School; Heathfield Primary School; Gumeracha Primary School; Kangarilla Primary School; Nairne Primary School; Bridgewater Primary School; Upper Sturt Primary School; and Mount Barker South Primary School. And soon I'll be visiting Littlehampton Primary School, which is where young Emerson attends. It's fantastic to be able to get out to see my community, and I'm sure all members of parliament get out to their schools. I'm looking forward to seeing even more schools next year, in 2024.