Grievance Debate

HIGHGATE PRIMARY SCHOOL

Mr PISONI (Unley) (16:00): One of the pleasures of being a member of parliament is conducting parliamentary tours. I would like to talk about an experience I had with a tour of the Highgate Primary School—Mrs Schaf's class—that occurred the week after the election.

As usual we had a primary school tour, starting in the foyer and moving to Old Parliament House and from there into the House of Assembly and then into the Legislative Council. Mrs Schaf's class from Highgate Primary School—and Highgate are regular attenders of school tours as part of their civic program—had some very interested young students who were particularly interested in the parliamentary process and what the role of an MP is. They asked all sorts of questions: everything from what is the metal grille in the middle of the floor to who is the woman opposite on the wall, Mrs Joyce Steele. I had great joy in explaining all of those details to my students.

It is particularly rewarding when the students—in this instance grade 7 students—are obviously paying attention and take home some of the information that they have learnt from their tour and put it into practice. I would like to read into Hansard a letter I got from one of the tour participants a day or two after the tour. It is a great letter, which says:

My name is Elisabeth Williamson, I'm 12 years old and today I went on the tour of parliament house (the girl who asked for your ottograph...Lizzy).

They say that politics is Hollywood for ugly people but we don't get asked for our autographs as often as some of us perhaps might if we were in Hollywood. So I did remember Lizzy and she tells me in the letter:

Right now it is 11:10pm at night. I am writing this letter to you because I've been keeped wait for nearly a week now because of a cow mooing in Urbray. I know that the cow is not in you electrote but I live in Unley. My sussepicons is that the baby cow was taken away from its mum and the mum is trying to find her baby.

The cows non-stop mooing to making it close to impossible to sleep. That may not seem like a big problem right now but I can get very grumpy without my sleep and my temper get out of control. Therefore it's putting my teacher, mum, dad, sisters and friends in danger. Help the cow find its baby help them. Please write back.

The address is here and she has got:

P.S. This letter is not a joke

P.P.P.S. I really enjoyed the tour today!

P.P.P.P.S I'm going to bed now.

Then on the back—it has asked me to turn the page—and it says, 'Sorry about spelling! I'm not good at spelling...one of my many weaknesses.'

I am very pleased to say that I diligently followed up Miss Williamson's request, contacting the principle of Urrbrae High School by letter and by phone and explaining the situation that Lizzy found herself in. Mr Czernezkyi wrote back and explained that Lizzy was right. The cow had lost its baby and was in fact mooing—looking for its baby. He went on to explain that this is part of the animal husbandry that is practised at Urrbrae High School. I was able to pass that information on to Lizzy and I was very pleased (as we all are as members of parliament) that I was able to satisfy the interests of my constituent and respond to her concerns. I was very pleased that someone showed that initiative, wrote to me and was able to get a result, because we all like to get results for our constituents and be available when we are needed.

I wish Lizzy all the best with her career. We might see her in politics one day. Obviously, she is a young girl with plenty of confidence. You do not need to be a good speller to be in politics, so I would encourage her to consider that as a course of action some time in the future.