Mrs ELSON (10:35 PM) —It is a great pleasure to stand in this chamber tonight and recognise the talent, optimism and enthusiasm of some very special young Australians. It is with great pride that I report to the House on the Forde Centenary of Federation School Essay Competition. I am delighted to have been able to personally host this special event as part of our local celebrations to commemorate the Centenary of Federation.

As honourable members know, I firmly believe in the optimism and talents of our young people. I believe that one of the very best aspects of being a member of parliament, and certainly one of the most enjoyable, is that I have the opportunity to meet and talk with so many great young people, especially when I visit our local schools, as I do on a regular basis. In this age when we seem to have a conflict driven media that feeds on bad news stories, it is wonderfully refreshing to know that our young Australians hold great hope for our future and have a strong belief in our nation and their place in it. This was certainly reflected in the hundreds of essays that local students submitted to the competition. Having read most of the essays myself, I must say that the judges had a very hard task.

Our three winners and three runners-up were certainly very worthy. It was a pleasure to meet them and their families at our special ceremony last month. In the nine- to 12-year category, we had joint winners in Kathryn Hales, who is 12 and comes from Tamborine Mountain College, and Anton Carboni from Tamborine Mountain State School. In the 13- to 15-year category, the winner was Joanne Tamblyn from Beenleigh, who attends Rivermount College, and the runner-up was Angela Smith of Helensvale, who goes to St Stephens College. We had two worthy runners-up in the nine- to 12-year section, Lisa Smith of Studio Village, who attends Jubilee School, and Stephen Fleming from Jimboomba State School. I would like to mention that there were a further 15 people who received special highly commended awards and whose work featured in the commemorative booklet that I launched last month. I hope to table that in the House tonight.

I was so impressed with the optimism and pride that our young students expressed that I decided to prepare this booklet as a lasting memento of their special work. It contains the winning essays as well as excerpts from our runners-up and highly commended entries. The booklet has been widely distributed throughout our local community so that others can share the national spirit and enthusiasm which is the underlying theme in all of these essays. It is really what our Centenary of Federation celebrations are all about. I have already received very positive feedback from the people in our community, who have remarked on the great pride they felt when reading this booklet. I could spend a great deal of time reciting some of my favourite pieces, but time does not permit me to do so, and they are all very worthy of recognition. Instead, with the permission of the Speaker, I will seek leave to table this booklet so that the views of our young people become part of today's parliamentary record. I found it really heartening—I am sure that other members will too—that the young people of Forde have been so willing to share their ideas and that they have the skills to express them so beautifully.

In the short time I have left, I would like to make a very few well-deserved thankyous to our great local theme parks—Dreamworld, Movieworld and Seaworld—for sponsoring and donating the first prizes. I would like to thank all the teachers and parents in our community. Both jobs can be challenging and very thankless at times, but we see the rewards reflected in the thoughts expressed in these essays. Local parents and teachers are obviously doing a tremendous job of nurturing and encouraging our young leaders of tomorrow.

Finally, I want to thank the hundreds of schoolchildren who took part in this competition. Every one of them has done our community very proud, and I hope they continue to speak their minds and take an active role in helping to shape our nation's future. We have a very proud history of democracy and a wonderful tradition of having a go, which is great news for the future of public debate and politics in Australia. One thing is crystal clear to me: in reading these essays and in meeting and talking to these young people, if the future of Australia is what they make it, then our future is in great hands. I now seek leave to table this small booklet.

Leave granted.