The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart—Minister for Energy and Mining) (11:15): It is a pleasure to rise in support of the motion from the Chair of the Public Works Committee, and I certainly agree with the member for Frome entirely that children are the future and probably one of the most important things in the world. It seems like a big statement, but I think it is absolutely true.

I do have a slightly different opinion from his of the John Pirie Secondary School over recent years. He said that it had a bad reputation, which recovered. My impression of the school has actually been very positive. I worked in Port Pirie for three years before joining parliament, and in fact I had the pleasure of visiting the school when I was doing tourism work through the Southern Flinders Ranges and in Port Pirie.

It was absolutely fantastic to be invited by the school to come and talk to one of their year groups—I think it was a year 11 group—when they were investigating career opportunities and that sort of thing, and to talk about tourism, the incredible opportunities that exist in tourism not only for people who might want to work in it but also for the region. That memory came back to me very positively last Thursday when I was in Port Pirie visiting the smelter.

There is a lot of good stuff happening in Port Pirie. It is fantastic that our government has been able to provide $15 million, in the $10 million plus the $5 million, which the Chair of the Public Works Committee mentioned just a while ago. This is a tremendous school that is becoming better and better under a Marshall government.