PREMIER'S ANZAC SCHOOL PRIZE

Mr PICCOLO (Light) (14:18): My question is directed to the Minister for Education and Children's Services.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I cannot hear a word the member for Light is saying.

Mr Pengilly interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Finniss will be quiet when I am on my feet or he will be out of here. I cannot hear a word the member for Light is saying. Members will be silent. The member for Light.

Mr PICCOLO: Will the minister please outline to the house what was the outcome of the recent Premier's ANZAC School Prize trip to France?

The Hon. J.D. LOMAX-SMITH (Adelaide—Minister for Education and Children's Services, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the City of Adelaide) (14:18): I thank the member for Light for his question. He would indeed be interested in this answer because two students from his electorate were prizewinners partaking in this trip to London, Belgium and France.

This is the second year that the Premier's ANZAC School Prize has been run. It is a brilliant event because it allows young people to visit battlefields from the First World War. The five successful students have the opportunity to take part in a two-week study tour, and the prizes are awarded on the basis of an essay and research they have carried out into the life and death of an individual. For some of those students, the individual was a relative and for others it was someone who was prominent within their community and well-known to their neighbourhood.

I am delighted that these students had this extraordinary experience. They had the opportunity not only to follow the last battles of their soldier by walking through the fields where they fought but also in some cases to attend the sites of the battle hospitals where they died. They then went to their graves in the war cemeteries and were able to present a commemorative speech representing their research and leave tokens on the graves.

The winning students this year were Kieran Langford from Loxton High School, Matthew Harmati—whom the member for Light knows—from Gawler High School, Richard Hayman from Immanuel College, Rebecca Hausler from St Mark's College, Port Pirie, and Naomi Wattchow from Westminster School, Marion. They were accompanied, as is appropriate, by a senior member of the RSL, this time Mr Graham Nybo, who is the Deputy Vice President of the South Australian RSL, and also two teachers, Ron Pippett from Immanuel College and Ilze Braddock from Loxton High School.

I was able to join the students as they attended Dernancourt and, as members would know, Dernancourt has a very strong relationship with South Australia and has a large cemetery named Adelaide Cemetery where very many South Australians are buried. The town, or I should say, the small village, was almost eradicated during the battle of the Somme when the German forces rose up the hill and an embankment to take over the railway line. When the South Australians returned from this devastating war, they raised funds and sent them back to Dernancourt for the rebuilding of the school, the town and the church, so that the church and the school were rebuilt with our funds and there was a strong relationship between the local community and South Australia.

In fact, if you visit the village now, the school has a sign saying 'Pavilion Adelaide' over the main hall. The townsfolk, the local mayor, Mr Lionel Lamotte, and the whole school turned out to see the ceremonies that were conducted, led by the RSL, where we laid wreaths, not only in Adelaide Cemetery on the graves of our fallen dead, but also in the French cemetery and a joint cemetery that has some combined forces.

We also visited Villers Bretonneux for the ANZAC Day dawn service. This event was extremely moving because Villers Bretonneux was also involved in another battle on 25 April. The students not only laid wreaths and commemorated the soldiers that they had researched but were able to remember the age and the youth of some of the fallen dead. Kieran Langford from Loxton had researched a young soldier called Edward Viney, who died at the age of 16, the same age as he was when he attended the grave. Another student, Rebecca Hausler, that afternoon walked through the field where one of her research soldiers fought. It was deeply moving and a life-changing experience for our five students.

I must say I was especially proud to be with them. They were great ambassadors for South Australia and we attended these cemeteries in the company of an English coach driver and an English historian. The historian's job was to research the battlefields and allow us to walk through relevant places and uncover sites of some of the war hospitals. The comments they made about our young students were really quite moving. They pointed out what good ambassadors they were, how proud we should be of them and how moved they were by their respect and gratitude to our fallen dead.

All in all, I thought this was a very good experience for me as Minister for Education and I feel that our community will be in good hands when these young children become adults and I am sure will continue respectfully and confidently in their lives remembering those who gave their lives for them.

We were asked by some people, as we travelled around, if attending war memorials glorified war. I think that is not true because when you see the size of the armies that were wiped out, the numbers of graves and ages of those who lost their lives, I think it can only reinforce the futility of war and the sense that, when you visit Villers Bretonneux and see 11,000 names carved on a wall knowing these are all lost in battle, you really understand what a pointless and wasteful event war is. I think it only brings back the very fine words of Ataturk, at another site related to ANZAC Day, when he said:

You the mothers who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears, your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land, they have become our sons as well.

I think in death we all join in recognising the futility of war. I would encourage all members of parliament to encourage the schools within their communities to take part in the 2009 Premier's ANZAC School Prize. It is a well worthwhile trip, it is a life-changing experience and I think for the five students who are lucky enough to be chosen next year, their experiences will be much like those whom I accompanied this year.