Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The thing that will define success for our nation increasingly in the years ahead will be the smarts of our people. This will require not only a patient investment but, as we see that talent and those smarts develop before our eyes, we should give a moment to congratulate and encourage. I am here today driven in part by this.

I recently had the great opportunity to visit Blacktown Girls High School, which sits in the electorate of my friend and colleague the member for Greenway. It also hosts a number of students who reside in the Chifley electorate. When I caught up with the students of Team 4802, which is Australia's first all-girl robotic team and called 'Unidentified Moving Machines' I saw them not during school but during the school holidays. They had been there through the course of the end of the year, working day in, day out, basically to prepare for a competition that they will enter in the next few months.

The team formed in 2015, and they've seen a significant jump in students pursuing IT, engineering and architecture post school, with up to one in five girls going on to study STEM at university. As I said, they spent most of January building robots to compete in the FRC Southern Cross Regional Competition, which is going to be held in March. They won this competition in 2018, and if they pass through this round they'll qualify for an international competition being held in Houston.

I was just astonished to see that they were making robots from scratch, writing their own code and creating autonomous and unmanned robots. It just makes me very proud to see Western Sydney talent. As I said, this is what is before our eyes; we're seeing the next generation of talent emerging, and I just want to congratulate them hugely.

The other person I would like to take a moment to congratulate is the Reverend John Dacey, who is moving on after 13 years as community minister at Bidwill Uniting Church. He was ordained as a deacon in the Uniting Church in 1996 and has been a pillar of the Bidwill community since 2007. He has done so many great things in our area. He has pushed for free dental-care clinics and held workshops and activities for FUNPARK, an annual community event, in collaboration with local service providers. There have been free one-on-one digital literacy training, seniors clubs and the Getting Ahead program, which gives families doing it tough a helping hand.

All this has been driven by his passion for social justice. In his own words, 'I chose to place my capacities at the service of those who miss out so that I might contribute something to their efforts to achieve their full potential, as well as to the task of building a fair society.' Well said, and we wish him all the best for his future endeavours.