STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Ms CLUTTERHAM (Sturt) (16:29): On 4 September 2026, I attended Morialta Secondary College in my electorate of Sturt to witness a peace pole ceremony. The installation of a peace pole at the school was initiated by the Rotary Club of Magill Sunrise, and it represented the 140th peace pole installed by Rotary clubs locally. It's inscribed with a message in English, Kaurna, Hindi and Mandarin—'May peace prevail on earth'—which is the fervent wish of the Magill Sunrise rotarians and of the really impressive year 10 students at the college, who led the ceremony so beautifully.

Peace poles have been planted on every continent in 200,000 communities. The peace pole at Morialta Secondary College is simple and beautiful, and it serves as a reminder to cultivate peace in thought, words and actions while reflecting humanity's shared desire for a world at peace and in harmony. The message from the ceremony was that peace does not just mean a lack of conflict; it means the deliberate creation and maintenance of an environment underpinned by equality, fairness and inclusivity, an environment where characteristics like gender, religion, colour, race, class or other things that mark us as different don't matter because we're all part of humankind.

The kind and intelligent students at Morialta Secondary College know this, and I know that they are determined to do what they can to contribute to maintaining peace in our community and beyond.