STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Mr SOON (Banks) (16:26): During the last sitting week, I had the opportunity to recognise the Speaker's Parliament in Schools program coming to a school in my electorate of Banks. This week, though, I have the opportunity to recognise the school from my electorate that came to parliament. On Thursday 14 May, it was my pleasure to meet a group of year 9 students from De La Salle College Revesby Heights, who were visiting Canberra as part of an excursion.

It was great to speak with them about the work I do in this place and answer some of their questions, including about how we as members in this place work for them and my go-to restaurants in the electorate of Banks. The students I met were thoughtful, intelligent and a real credit to their school and our community. I hope they enjoyed the rest of their time in Canberra.

I want to give special thanks, though, to the teachers who sacrificed their time to come with their students to make sure they learnt about Canberra, parliament and their civic responsibilities. I hope they enjoyed their fantastic opportunity to visit Parliament House and visit the national monuments that we have right here in Canberra and took a great deal of lessons learnt about our cultural and political institutions back home with them to the electorate of Banks.