SACE Merit Ceremony

Mr BOYER (Wright) (15:28): I should begin by joining the member for Newland in acknowledging that the Christmas period has taken its toll on what I think is called a 'dad bod', which I apparently now have according to some people in my family. My almost seven-year-old daughter now enjoys welcoming people to our house and telling them at the doorstep, 'Dad now has a big belly,' and just to make sure that he is not eating too much food. It is a proud moment for us both, I think you could say.

It is my pleasure to rise this afternoon to speak in brief about this year's SACE Merit Ceremony, which began this week on Monday evening at Government House. I attended in my capacity as the shadow minister for education. At the ceremony, of course, were not only the Governor and Mrs Le, who very generously opened up their house, as they do each year, for students and parents of students to come and receive their well-deserved acknowledgement for excellence in SACE, but also the Premier, the Minister for Education, and the member for Hurtle Vale. I would like to make special mention of the member for Hurtle Vale, who has made a habit of going to SACE ceremonies year after year by way of supporting students from her electorate who might be there to receive an award.

Aside from the fact that it is a beautiful setting, it is always enjoyable to join with very proud and excited parents as they acknowledge and celebrate their children's results. It is also great to show members of your community how seriously you take education and how serious you are about celebrating their success stories as well. There were many of those on Monday night.

It was an absolutely perfect evening and we could not have asked for better weather. Of course, Government House looked resplendent, as it always does. I got a great deal of joy from looking around the marquee, keeping in mind that, because we are still doing the right thing with COVID social distancing, the marquee was a little bit bigger than it normally is. It was lovely to see so many parents, carers, grandparents and friends using the opportunity provided to them by the Governor and Mrs Le to have photos with their awards around the beautiful grounds of Government House.

More than anything, the tradition has been one of many years for the Governor of South Australia to host the SACE Merit Ceremony on the grounds of Government House. It sends a really powerful message, a message more powerful than could be conveyed by any politician with words, about how important celebrating the success of our students is and how important it is to acknowledge excellence in SACE, regardless of whether or not that is achieved at a public school. There were many students from public schools there receiving awards on Monday night, but independent and Catholic schools were also strongly represented.

I was exceptionally thrilled and surprised (I was unaware because I had not seen the list of the award winners for Monday evening) when I saw two local students from schools in the north-east hop on stage to receive their prizes for the Governor of South Australia Commendation—Excellence Award, which is basically the highest honour that a student can receive at the SACE Merit Ceremony.

The two local people to whom I refer are Ms Greta Matthias of Modbury High School—I am pleased to say that Greta was the dux of Modbury High School with a score of 99.1—and Mr Trent Heaver, who was a student at King's Baptist Grammar School. They were both there with some very proud parents. Greta and her family were already known to me, as they had been very active in the community during the proposed changes to bus routes and bus stops in the area and had already shown themselves to be very active and community-minded people. It was a huge thrill for me to be there and just share in their special moment for a short period of time.

I finish by remarking that I hope this is a tradition that will be continued by governors well into the future because the pride on the faces of parents and students as they stood in the grounds of Government House on Monday night to receive their awards is something that will stay with me for a long time.