Daniel Hulme MP - Working for you in Franklin

Good afternoon. It’s great to be here at Lenah Valley Primary today representing the Premier David Bartlett, who unfortunately can’t be here due to other commitments.

Today we’re here to celebrate the launch of the "Aussie-Tas" website and the inaugural Alcorso Foundation Sustainable Schools prizes, as well as to present certificates to participating schools in this very important sustainability program – the Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative, which encourages a whole-school approach to sustainability.

It’s fantastic that Tasmanian schools are getting involved in these sorts of initiatives because we all know how important looking after our environment is.

Issues like climate change have put sustainability in the spotlight.

Sustainability has many definitions but essentially it refers to the ability of earth’s ecosystems to continue to support life in the future. It’s about meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

We all have a responsibility to look after our environment in any way we can. Whether it’s turning off the taps to save water, turning off lights when they’re not needed, taking re-usable shopping bags to the supermarket or starting a compost heap we can all have a positive effect on making Tasmania a better place to live.

We’re lucky enough to live in one of the cleanest, most pristine – and most stunning – places in the world.

We have a rich environment where native animals and plants thrive both in the bush and in our clean waters.

We need to preserve our beautiful State not only for us – but for future generations.

And that means educating the next generation about the importance of Tasmania’s environment and the diversity of life.

The Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative supports schools to work towards a sustainable future and is a great way of educating students like yourselves.

As you know, the initiative involves participants in a whole-of-school approach to explore improvements in your school’s management of resources and grounds including energy, waste, water, biodiversity, landscape design, products and materials.

The Tasmanian part of the initiative is being delivered by the Department of Education and the Department of Tourism, Arts and the Environment. This initiative is open to schools from both the government and non-government education systems.

To date, a total of 54 Government and non-Government schools throughout the State are taking part, with students from Kindergarten to Grade 10.

Examples of some of the initiatives developed so far include:

Outdoor classrooms are being created here at Lenah Valley Primary Schools with the nearby Haldene Reserve in partnership with Transend, Greening Australia and the Hobart City Council
Lansdowne Crescent Primary is becoming a habitat island and a wildlife corridor
Several schools have composting and gardening practices in place
And paper recycling practices and rethinking water usage programs are being implemented at all AuSSI-Tas schools.

Today I’d like to like to pay tribute to the Alcorso Foundation for supporting this initiative through the provision of three $1000 prizes for Tasmania’s sustainable schools.

Undoubtedly, these prizes will be a great incentive for other Tasmanian schools to join this important initiative.

One of the best things is that a condition of the prizes is that the money is to be spent in the following year by reinvesting the funds into that year’s environmental management plan.

This is a very generous gesture by the Alcorso Foundation, which was established in 2001 to celebrate the life of Claudio Alcorso.

Both Claudio and his late wife Lesley were enlightened patrons of the arts as well as strong believers in social justice and the environment.

So a very big thankyou to the Foundation for supporting this important sustainability initiative in Tasmanian schools.

Before I finish, I’d like to pay tribute to Natural Resource Management (South) for providing financial support to establish the website. This is an important tool for spreading the message even wider about the AUSSI program.

I’d also like to congratulate Lenah Valley Primary and all of the other participating schools for their commitment to this valuable project.

Lenah Valley Primary is a fantastic lead school for the project because you have already shown your commitment to sustainability through initiatives like your walking school bus.

We all need to make changes to make our lives more sustainable and all of the participating staff and students are setting a fantastic example for the wider community.

I’m now pleased to present participation certificates to the 13 new AUSSI-Tas schools.