House debates

Monday, 19 June 2017

Constituency Statements

Willy Lit Fest

10:42 am

Photo of Tim WattsTim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I was pleased on the weekend to be able to attend one of the fabulous festivals in Melbourne's west, the annual Williamstown literature festival—the Willy Lit Fest. Judging by the audience reaction the festival winner was Andy Griffiths, the author of the treehouse storey series, who is a local literary icon in Melbourne's west. He was mobbed by young children in Melbourne's west demanding to know when the 91-Storey Treehouse would be coming out.

Another icon of the Willy Lit Fest is the annual Ada Cambridge writing prizes. I would like to acknowledge in the chamber this year's winners. The biographical prose winner was Fikret Pajalic for All the Wrong Things. The poetry winner was Edward Reilly for 'There Were Limits'. The short story prize winner was Keely Brown for 'Freedom'.

I would like to thank the sponsors, volunteers and committee members for making the festival a reality for literature lovers in Melbourne's west. I would particularly like to congratulate committee members Angela Altair, John Webb, Barbara Hughes, Brian Christopher, Christopher Ringrose, Elisabeth Grove, Carol Winfield, Lindy Wallace, Anna Brasier, Sue Martin and the inexhaustible program director, Loraine Callow.

I was particularly pleased to be able to sponsor the event this year and to introduce Williamstown's own Leigh Hobbs, the 2016-17 Australian Children's Laureate. We have a special place in our heart for Australian children's writers, as they not only provide a doorway into a new world, into a new experience, through literature but also open that whole experience to children for the first time. Leigh Hobbs is a best-selling children's author and illustrator, best known for creating characters like Old Tom, Horrible Harriet and the Watts family favourite Mr Chicken.

The Australian Children's Laureate is an initiative of the Australian Children's Literature Alliance and its role is to promote the importance of reading, creativity and story for Australian children.

Leigh Hobbs told the Willy Lit Fest that his priority as the Australian Children's Laureate would be:

… to champion creative opportunities for children, and to highlight the essential role that libraries play in nurturing our children's creative lives.

I would like to echo Leigh's call in the chamber today. School libraries are like children's literature authors: they open up that new world to our children. School libraries are crucial for instilling a love of reading and building critical thinking and information evaluation skills.

The House Standing Committee on Education and Employment found in its 2011 report School libraries and teacher librarians in 21st century Australia:

Whilst research demonstrates a clear correlation between a good school library and teacher librarian and student achievement, the link is not always appreciated, acknowledged or made best use of.

There are challenges to ensuring that all children enjoy these benefits, including, notably, the need for school libraries to employ qualified teacher librarians in order to properly serve their communities. Unfortunately, the Australian Council for Education Research has found that more than one-third of primary teachers and one-quarter of secondary teachers working in school libraries have no tertiary qualification and, further:

… there is evidence of a greater number of teachers in library roles in high socio-economic … schools and correspondingly fewer in low SES schools.

We ought to have a school library and librarian for every child. (Time expired)