TS NOARLUNGA NAVY CADET UNIT

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (15:42): I rise today with my Matter of Interest to congratulate the TS (Training Ship) Noarlunga Navy cadet unit. It is a unit that I have been privileged to visit on many occasions over the years, and it is an exemplary unit of the Australian Navy Cadets, with a motto of 'No risk, no win.' In fact, in 2009 the TS Noarlunga was the winning unit in South Australia. This comes as no surprise to me because it is headed up by some fantastic leadership.

Time does not permit me to put all the names of the training officers, the unit staff and the unit support committee in Hansard, but I am sure that the rest of the hard-working members down there will not mind my particularly mentioning the commanding officer, Lieutenant David Lyas ANC and the president, Miss Kerry White, who have done a fantastic job in leadership with respect to the TS Noarlunga staff and the unit support committee. I knew David prior to his retirement as a police officer—and he was also exemplary in that position—who then, as a volunteer, went on to do and continues to do so much work for the young people in the south.

These young people are an absolute credit to themselves, to the southern community and to the TS Noarlunga. You see them out volunteering at many different public functions, and they are always well behaved, well dressed and they impress the community they are involved with at those events, particularly at events such as the Australia Day citizenship ceremony at Noarlunga, which is held by the City of Onkaparinga. Most years, at least 100 people receive Australian citizenship at these ceremonies, and it is great to see those naval cadets, both young men and young women, involved in that ceremony. Obviously, we also see them at ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day services, and they do a lot of great work for the community.

The other benefit I see from their being Australian Navy cadets is that they learn very good skills when it comes to teamwork, discipline, pride, growth and development of their ambition. On a regular basis, when I talk to them and ask, 'What are you going to do when you finish school, university or TAFE?' many of them say that they intend to join the regular Navy.

I think it is money well invested, because we often see, when they have not been cadets, that they tend not to stay in the regular services for as long as one would like them to in order to develop their careers, and the investment by taxpayers is diminished to an extent because of that. Having a training and development program like the TS Noarlunga Australian Navy Cadets gives them a chance to 'suck and see'—if I can put it that way—just what it is like to be in the navy.

That brings me to my next point. There has been a lot of hype and argument about behavioural problems, bullying and harassment in our schools. I remember that when I went to Urrbrae Agricultural High School I can remember that there was a strong contingent of army cadets there. While some of us were there after school on tractors doing farm work and so on, some of them were involved (those who were not so much into agriculture, probably) with the army cadets.

We never saw those particular young people being involved with bullying and harassment. They may not have been leading sportsmen or women, but they had an interest in and an opportunity for personal development skill improvement, teamwork development and the like. They had opportunities on the weekends to go to the Flinders Ranges and other places where they were able to further develop their skills.

I think it is sad that the army, navy and air force cadet programs were taken out of the schools. Admittedly, there are some opportunities, thanks to volunteers (some of whom I have named in this chamber this afternoon) where we do have outstanding and extraordinary young people being developed through units in the navy, army and air force like the TS Noarlunga unit, but in revisiting problems with bullying and harassment, I think it is time that we perhaps consider giving people the opportunity for self-development by allowing cadet army, navy and air force programs to come back into schools.

Time expired.