CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS

Mr NG (Menzies) (09:56): A couple of weeks ago, I joined the Bulleen-Templestowe Basketball Club at their Big Freeze at the B to raise funds to fight MND. Coaches, clubs, volunteers and, yes, even their local federal MP put their hands up for the ice bucket challenge. I give a big thankyou to David, Stav and Mitch, who obviously enjoyed tipping an especially big bucket of ice water on me, as well as to all the volunteers for organising this amazing event again this year and cooking up a delicious spaghetti dinner to help us warm up afterwards and keep the young players fed.

I also got a chance to meet the young women's team and see how badly needed our federal government investment of $3.5 million is for building female-friendly change rooms. The Big Freeze at the B came only a few weeks after the passing of the great Neale Daniher. This year's event was the perfect opportunity to honour Neale's legacy of courage, selflessness and hope.

Congratulations to the club for raising over $4,200 for such an important cause. The Box Hill Silk Road Lions Club is a fantastic community organisation in Menzies that brings together the Asian Australian community across Box Hill and eastern Melbourne to do real-world good. It was wonderful to join them at the Gardiners Creek Reserve for their five-kilometre fun run alongside 300 other participants, including those from the Box Hill Hawks and the Melbourne Loong Football Club, who came out on a chilly morning for a very worthy cause.

Childhood cancer is the leading cause of death amongst children in Australia—a confronting fact, especially for those of us who are parents. The good news is that survival rates have dramatically improved, with over 80 per cent of children surviving with treatment. That progress is a direct result of research, funding and the dedication of clinicians and scientists.

This is why it was important to join the fun run, as every dollar raised went to the Cancer in Kids Auxiliary at the Royal Children's Hospital, who are transforming how we understand and treat childhood cancer. Thanks to everyone who took part, particularly to President Wendy Yang and the Box Hill Silk Road Lions Club, for raising over $8,000. Every dollar brings us one step closer to a future where no family has to face childhood cancer without hope.

Templestowe Heights Primary School is one of our fantastic schools in Menzies that are leading the way in evidence based teaching. It was wonderful to visit La Trobe University's Science of Language and Reading, or SOLAR, Lab recently with the Minister for Education, Jason Clare; the Assistant Minister for Social Services, Ged Kearney; and some of our Victorian state colleagues.

The SOLAR Lab provides the opportunity for researchers and teaching students to observe and learn the latest in educational innovation. We got the opportunity to watch one of the outstanding teachers from Templestowe Heights applying these techniques in practice. The real stars, though, were the Templestowe Heights students, who were doing an amazing job applying their learning by reading passages from Hatchet, a book so old that even I studied it at school.