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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-11-12 Daily Xml
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Reynella East College Climate Change Book

Ms COOK (Hurtle Vale) (15:19): Thank you, Mr Speaker, and, yes, congratulations on the quiz night. It would be remiss of me not to say that our team won that quiz night and I believe that the Wortleys' team came third and another team from this side of the house came fourth, so I think we are batting above our average.

Mr Speaker, as you have already mentioned, we have a group of fantastic year 10 students present in the gallery from Reynella East College, who are members of my electorate. I have invited them here today to congratulate them on writing, editing and publishing a fantastic book which highlights the issues of climate change—troubling for us and future generations. The class has produced the 70-page self-published book, entitled 3000 Days, to show their commitment and concern about the environment that they have inherited from us and are forced to grow up in.

I am told the title of the book came from the amount of time experts believe mankind has left to change the ways we eat, travel and produce electricity. Only then might we be able to prevent the irreversible climate catastrophe that looms over us all. Earlier this year, you will remember that a worldwide student climate change protest was held in almost every city in the world. Following this protest, this class of 22 students was inspired to produce this book in the hope that more people will listen to the facts.

There are chapters devoted to the problem with meat, and meat production, and the huge levels of methane produced by cows and other farm animals. Some students have become vegan and vegetarian following the book's publication—that is real commitment. The chapter on waste urges us to buy those odd-shaped fruit and vegetables that supermarkets hate to stock, meaning our struggling farmers dump millions of tonnes per year of waste into the ground.

One chapter I was particularly drawn to focuses on schooling for girls in developing nations. This is important because of our world population skyrocketing. Students explain how educating women and girls in developing countries to have smaller families will help reduce population growth and also then have a knock-on effect for emissions, not to mention the wonderful effect that it has for girls in developing countries being able to develop themselves.

The book was written and published in just one month, which I am sure you will agree is a fantastic effort from the students and their editor, Ms Lara Lang, who is the Assistant Principal at Reynella East College. Today, we held a small celebration in the Balcony Room for students who are about to complete their exams. We were joined by the federal shadow minister for climate change, the Hon. Mark Butler MP, who has been taking up this fight for many years. Also attending was our deputy leader, the member for Port Adelaide, as well as our leader. Also present were the member for Reynell, the member for Enfield and, from the other place, the Hon. Ms Pnevmatikos joined us.

On behalf of everyone in my electorate—and, I hope, the parliament—I would like to say congratulations. I would like to read the names of the students onto the record in acknowledgement of their fantastic contribution: Jaymee Anderson, Abby Beeche, Britney Bonham, Isabella Brinkworth, Chloe Cousins, Sophie Field, Miki Itoi, George Jahshan, Stephen Jones, Jess Juckes, Ebanie Lenton, Chloe Lines, Caitlin Milne, Chelsea Nicholls, Ashleigh Oakes, Hayden Pearce, Kate Roberts, Ashleigh Scroop, Hannah Weyland, Nathan Wyatt, Sylvia Yang, and Lachlan Olbrich, who also should be congratulated on his achievements playing for Australia in volleyball recently and his outstanding achievements in basketball.

Of course, I want to congratulate and also welcome to parliament Principal Caroline Green. Her enduring support of the students and her nurturing and leadership are beyond reproach and helped contribute to this success. I also congratulate Lara Lang on being their wonderful editor. For those interested, you can obtain a copy of the book from the school. With the students, I have lodged a copy of the book with the parliamentary library for use by colleagues and research staff. I thank you, students.

In the short time I have left, on a personal note I want to thank everybody for their support and messages on the recent loss yesterday of my mother-in-law, Pam, who has passed after suffering from dementia—a long journey. Really, this is not about that. What it is about is saying thank you so much to Cottage Grove, an Eldercare facility in the seat of Hurtle Vale in Woodcroft. The staff have provided so much love and care to my mother-in-law through a long journey with dementia. They are a simply a wonderful, wonderful nursing home and I thank them in a time when often aged care gets a bad rap.

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