Reynell Electorate

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (15:45): I rise today to talk about just a few of the many fantastic events that have happened in Reynell with and for our southern community over the past few weeks. I love spending time in my community with the incredibly passionate people who give so much of their time and effort to engage with community members in so many different ways, to include them and to get them active in various events and projects.

I was lucky enough to attend the brand-new Hackham West Community Garden last Friday. Community Health Onkaparinga, the Original Men's Shed and many community-minded volunteers have got together to ensure this excellent initiative was brought to life. People from around our local southern neighbourhoods gather at this garden and their efforts have seen a community space absolutely transformed with vegetables and fruit growing, outdoor cooking and preparation facilities, and beautiful plants, flowers and trees in bloom.

It is a great place to bring community members who may not have engaged in other activities to get together and to be part of it in a way that works for them. Sadly, just as I had to leave, wood oven pizza and salad created straight from the garden were being prepared by those present. These sorts of initiatives are important to our community, not just because of how they bring people together but also in terms of teaching our children about where their food comes from and how they can provide service to others. I congratulate everyone involved on their hard work towards this garden.

On Saturday, I was lucky enough to attend the Morphett Vale Youth Club awards and demonstration night. The outstanding work of their volunteer committee, coaches, instructors and assistant instructors, parents and kids was on display. This year, the club celebrates 49 years of supporting our southern kids to do their best in gymnastics, to try something new and to build their confidence to interact in other ways with our community.

Forty-nine years of keeping a community club or group going is an outstanding achievement and almost five decades of success speak volumes for the commitment of everyone involved in creating a safe and supportive environment for generations of our kids to enjoy together. It was also an absolute pleasure to witness the spectacular demonstration by the children, a demonstration that was extraordinary in terms of the level of skill on display but also a demonstration that made me feel both quite unfit and quite inflexible. Whilst I enjoyed watching, I am definitely not cut out for gymnastics.

Our City of Onkaparinga Christmas Pageant is always a fantastic day, and this year was no exception. Our community and Christmas spirit were, as always, on display with the day enabling an array of community clubs, sporting clubs and organisations that all work together to make the south such a connected, kind and resilient community to participate. The pageant is an institution in the south, and I was very proud to have a joint float along with my colleague the member for Kaurna. Whilst just a little smaller than its city counterpart, I believe that our southern pageant is the best in South Australia because of how well our community engages with it.

I was also very pleased over the last couple of weeks to be able to get along and speak at both the Wirreanda Secondary School graduation and the Christies Beach High School graduation for the class of 2016 at each of these schools. This kicks off for me, as I am sure it does for other members of this house, many graduations which are both sad and reflective times in terms of those young people reflecting on their years of schooling, but they are also a very hopeful times for parents, students and teachers alike.

I have to congratulate the students of both those schools on their extraordinary efforts, resilience and persistence during their final year of schooling and over their time at both primary school and high school. It was a privilege, as always, to celebrate with both schools and with these students who are moving on from their school life. I think it is one of the great privileges of our roles as members of parliament to be able to support those schools in any way we can, but particularly to support those students as they transition from that part of their learning in their school life on to learning and working in other ways in our community.

As I said at the graduation, I hope those students take their next steps with full hearts, open minds and the knowledge that so many in our community support them. Thank you very much to all the parents and caregivers, who are these young people's first teachers and who lay the foundations for future learning, and thank you to the teachers and other staff at both these schools, who have ignited imagination and instilled a love of learning.

I want to quickly mention that I was able to give out awards at both these graduations. To Nick Ryan and Isbah Sarwar at Wirreanda Secondary School, congratulations on their citizenship award. To Jess, congratulations on winning the Edward Award at Christies Beach High School for her commitment and positivity about her school community.