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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-07-31 Daily Xml
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Newland Electorate

Dr HARVEY (Newland) (15:48): I am very delighted to speak today about the wonderful production of Trolls by the Ridgehaven Primary School that I went to last night. For the uninitiated, Trolls is the DreamWorks animation, and the students did a fantastic job. I went along with two of my children, as they are at the right age where Trolls is very exciting, and they also thoroughly enjoyed it.

The production, the play, went for a couple of hours, with students from grades 3 up to grade 6. I have been informed that in previous years there were a lot of year 7s, but this year there were not very many, and so the younger students were very much really doing the bulk of the work. They acted out the story with good humour and with a number of songs from the movie, but tying in some other things from other movies, like The Greatest Showman and Tangled, the Disney movie, and they did a really brilliant job.

At two hours in length, it is lots of lines, and the students got almost all of them completely down pat. There were a number of songs as well. Students who had major singing parts did a fantastic job. I was informed that one student in particular was a very late fill-in and had a major singing part. She had a fantastic voice and did a really amazing job of getting across all the lines to her part.

I would very much like to congratulate the school on this wonderful production and in particular the principal, Jean Perks. This is in fact her last year as the principal; they will be getting a new principal next year. I congratulate the governing council chair, Mel Leaver, all the teachers and students who were involved on the work they put into this project, and particularly the drama teacher, Mr Marc Wallis, on leading the production.

The arts are very much a fantastic opportunity for students to express themselves and their creativity and to work together. Also, importantly, they are an opportunity for students to get the experience of performing in front of an audience, particularly if your family gets the opportunity to go along. I very much congratulate the school on their efforts.

At the weekend, I also had the great honour to be invited to attend the inaugural Talk Out Loud Winter Wonder Ball. This was held in the western suburbs at the Findon function centre. Talk Out Loud is located in my electorate in Modbury. It has recently become a local suicide prevention network. This fundraiser, the winter wonder ball, is one of their major fundraisers to support the very important work they do. The ball attracted almost 400 people, lots of families and a number of younger people who are now volunteers bringing their families along with them. Really, it highlights the importance of creating communities and community support in the prevention of suicide.

Quite a number of very inspirational speakers spoke about their own stories, whether they had had friends or family who had died by suicide or whether they were individuals who had considered or attempted to take their own life. These people were particularly inspirational in their ability to tell their own story and of the transformational impact that it would have on so many other young people and many others right throughout our community.

Talk Out Loud provides harm prevention initiatives, activities and programs targeted primarily at young people under 30 and their families. Their mission is to equip young people with the tools necessary to maintain a healthy mental, physical and emotional lifestyle using a proactive positive psychology approach. There is very much an emphasis on creating a safe place for youths and creating a community where it is okay for these younger people to be who they are.

I would very much like to congratulate Mary Gee, the founder and CEO of Talk Out Loud, and her team on organising a fantastic function. Suicide is the leading cause of death in people under the age of 45 and deserves a great deal of our attention. I congratulate this local group on all the work they do.

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