Sharkie keeps promise to Lenswood Primary

17 Jul 2020

Posted December 16, 2016

Culling carp from the Murray River and putting an end to homelessness were two issues raised by Lenswood Primary School senior students when asked what they would do if they were Prime Minister for day.

The question was posed by NXT Federal Member for Mayo Rebekha Sharkie on December 12 when she visited the school.

The visit was arranged after a “meet and greet” with the students during their visit to Federal Parliament in Canberra a few weeks ago was interrupted by a call to vote in the House of Representatives.

“I barely got a chance to say hello before the division bells rang and I had to rush off,” Ms Sharkie said.

“Meeting the students of Mayo during their Canberra camps is one of the best parts of being the local MP so I wanted to make sure I caught up with them before the end of the school year.

“Asking students what they would do if they were Prime Minister for a day is something I always put to them because it gets them thinking and their responses often get me thinking.”

Besides homelessness and carp, Lenswood students wanted to ensure water rights and better farm gate prices for farmers as well as raising the issues of marriage equality, protections for endangered animals, increasing refugee quotas and reducing carbon emissions.

A few students also wanted to abolish the new rules allowing motorists to cross double lines to give cyclists a wider berth, saying a 1.5m buffer would be safer for everyone.

“Out of the 24 senior students in the class, a show of hands indicated 14 of them rode their bikes to school which is great to see,” Ms Sharkie said.

“I was also impressed with how aware they were of the social and political issues affecting their local communities and wider society.”

More than one million students over more than 19,000 school visits have visited Parliament House in Canberra since the Government introduced the Parliament and Civics Education Rebate (PACER) program a decade ago.

The one millionth student visit was a St Francis de Sales College student from Mt Barker and happened in early November.

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