Henley Beach Primary School

The Hon. P. CAICA (Colton) (15:35): Today, I want to speak about two of my most recent engagements with my electorate over the last week or so. Deputy Speaker, one of the many excellent schools in the Colton electorate is the Henley Beach Primary School, and you would be pleased to know that it happens to be my old primary school.

Early last week, I was invited to attend Tracey Burner's year 4 class to discuss aspects of government and answer well-prepared and thoughtful questions on our democratic system and my role as a member of parliament. The students were pleased to learn that Henley Beach Primary School was my old primary school but appeared somewhat shocked that I attended the school from 1963 to 1969, with the sad truth being that I was a student at that school before many of their parents were even born, but it is the truth.

As you would expect from Henley Beach Primary School, teacher Tracey Burner had properly and well prepared the students for my visit. It is safe to say that I enjoyed myself as much as I hope the students did. What was originally meant to be a half-hour session extended to almost an hour. One might ask the rhetorical question: are kids in year 4 too young to learn about our government and democratic system? I do not think so, providing it is pitched at the correct age level.

Ours, as you are fully aware, is a participative democracy. It is incumbent upon all of us to participate. We know the national curriculum now includes a civics component for primary school students, and it is certainly my view that this should then build our students' knowledge and understanding of our democracy and the three tiers of government. Our young people should learn about our Public Service which, then in turn, will better prepare them to be informed participants in our democratic system.

I want to congratulate and thank Tracey Burner and, in fact, all of the teachers and support staff at Henley Beach Primary School for the outstanding work they do in educating the students. It is an outstanding primary school occupied by equally outstanding staff and well supported by an engaged broader school community. This classroom that I was in has about 15 beautiful cockatiels which the kids take home each night and bring to the class there. It is just outstanding to see the way they nurture and look after these birds not only at school but at home as well.

On Sunday that has just gone, I attended, as I am sure many members did, a Clean Up Australia event. The event that I attended was conducted by the Grange Baptist Church. I am pleased to also inform you, Deputy Speaker, that I was accompanied by my friend the former federal member for Hindmarsh and now candidate, Steve Georganas, who certainly got his feet dirty whilst we were collecting rubbish.

We joined with a couple of dozen young members of the Grange Baptist Church congregation, and of course a few adult supervisors and fellow rubbish collectors, in collecting rubbish around the Kirkcaldy Park lake. This is the third year in succession I have attended this particular event. I want to acknowledge and thank church member Jill Hinton, who has organised this event on behalf of the Baptist Church. Certainly, at the start she was a little bit worried about the numbers, but as we got closer to 10 o'clock we probably had in the end as many, if not more, volunteers than previous years.

It was also pleasing that we did not find as much rubbish as we had in previous years, and I think that in itself is a positive thing. As one of the youngsters said last year, 'We wouldn't need to do it if others did the right thing,' and that comment still holds true. It is up to each of us to make sure that we do dispose of our rubbish properly.

The Grange Baptist Church is a very good church, well attended by a vibrant congregation across all ages. It is pleasing that this church, a pillar of our community, extends itself to events such as Clean Up Australia. Again, I congratulate organiser Jill Hinton and thank her and the Grange Baptist congregation for all they do. One of the members of the congregation, Mary, was not there this year, but every time she sees me at the church she says, 'We're going to try to convert you, Paul. Are you converting to become a Baptist?' I think they have given up on that, because the answer is no. Notwithstanding all that, it is an outstanding church that is doing outstanding things in and around our community.