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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 13 Hansard (27 November) . . Page.. 4912 ..

MR CORNWELL (continuing):

private buildings and toilets and sports grounds indicating where to telephone to report water leaks. It sounds a small thing, but it is quite important. Mr Wood wrote back and said that the matter was being considered.

He also mentioned that the matter had been passed on to schools, and that Mr Murch, the facilities manager of the Department of Education, Youth and Family Services, had indicated that he would request that all schools erect signs for reporting of water leakages. This is an important matter because, although the department works assiduously to repair these water leaks, they cannot be everywhere and the public has to be their eyes in this matter. I think, therefore, that this is a step in the right direction and, with so many mobile telephones around, there is no reason why the matter cannot be reported immediately, if it is found.

With regard to the private sector, of course, as Mr Wood has quite rightly explained to me, that is a matter for it, but we would hope that, if the public sector follows this through, then aspects of the private sector may pick up on it, and I think we will all benefit from it.

I think it is probably fair to say that perhaps we should have been doing this years ago. We have been quite profligate with water over the years here, but better late than never. Thank you, Minister, for picking up on the idea.

Mount Taylor Primary School

MR PRATT (10.25): I just rise very briefly to congratulate Mount Taylor Primary School for celebrating its 25th birthday the weekend before last. I acknowledge, of course, that the minister officiated at the opening of that birthday affair. I also noticed that the celebrations were typically school choir and band-oriented.

Taylor has a quite proud tradition of exercising musical capabilities. It would happen to be, I think, the primary school with the most capable musical program I have ever seen anywhere in the country. Taylor Primary really wears it. I had the honour earlier this year to MC one Saturday afternoon at a musical festival, a very high-standard competition. I got locked in for about three hours, and it was three hours of pure musical pleasure. I just did not know that children of that age could perform to such a high standard on a broad variety of instruments.

In fact, the standards were so high, and the organisation in Taylor Primary so well-oiled in terms of getting this thing moving, that as MC I was absolutely dead scared of making a mistake. So I myself had to perform to the highest possible standards. That is Taylor Primary, which I think is a very impressive little school.

I commend their celebrations. I hope they have another good 25 years coming up, and I hope that the next caption will be just as impressive to look at when that is presented next time round. It is just a pleasure to have the responsibility occasionally to wander past their front gate.

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