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- 11 March 2004
Punchbowl Boys High School Kokoda Track Walk
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Page: 7125
The Hon. CHARLIE LYNN [5.17 p.m.]: About a year ago the Daily Telegraph ran the headline story that identified Punchbowl Boys High School as the worst school in Australia. This was a damning indictment of the school, and it caused the teachers and students to feel that they were being unfairly stigmatised. A young Bankstown boy, Brett Murray, who runs a youth organisation called Camp Dare, realised that the potential for social alienation within the school was considerable. He sought a meeting with the principal, Michael Glenday, with a proposal that 10 leaders for the school be selected to walk across the Kokoda Track as a rite of passage to Australian adulthood. They would then become role models in the school, to lead the attitudinal change necessary to help the school become one of the best schools in Australia.
To his great credit the principal embraced the concept, and 10 students volunteered and were selected. They were Abdullah Daruish, Mohammad El Assaad, Mohammad Kabaaita, Mohamed Osman, Wissani El Sakey, Talosaga Felise Saena, Mark Terangi, Mark Tuton, Omar Abdo and Khaled Omar. I was asked whether I would volunteer to lead the students across the track, to give them the history of the track and to help them with safety issues and the care they needed.
Brett Murray put together a team of volunteers who were as professional as any of the people I have met in my dealings with people in the bush. They were Ronnie Yilhaus, Daniel Bonnington, Dominic Kelsall, James Holden, Ian Cook, and Thomas Aguilar from Fitness First and Camp Dare. We were also accompanied by Stuart Shannon and Matt Lynch from Channel 7 on what was to be an epic journey involving a lot of planning.
Brett had given the school about two months notice to allow it to work through the necessary protocols with the Department of Education and Training. On Friday 27 February, two days before departure, Brett was advised that he would have to provide insurance cover for the group to the value of $10 million. To his great credit, he worked through the night and was able to obtain from a United Kingdom company a policy that covered each individual for $6 million. The insurance cover cost him an additional $7,000.
Brett was advised by Rod Leonarder, the superintendent for Bankstown, that this was not good enough. When Brett asked for the contact details of the person who provided the insurance advice, Mr John Moon, the chief legal adviser for the department, he was refused. He was also advised by Rod Leonarder that the education department would not support the initiative, and that the three teachers who had trained with the students would not be allowed to participate in the trek.
On the Saturday morning Brett contacted each of the parents to show them the insurance policy he had secured, and to seek their approval for their sons to participate. They all agreed. This unnecessary delay had a serious adverse effect on the final preparations for the trek. It certainly put Brett under a lot of pressure. However, despite this he provided an inspiring leadership example for the students.
The trek was as tough as any I have done, and the students were as good as any I have led over the past 10 years. We had only six days to cross the track—I normally allow 8½ days—and it was the height of the wet season. On the Saturday we had to get up at 2.00 a.m. for a 3.00 a.m. start to complete the trek on time. We made Isurava at around 10.00 p.m., and we were hit by the best storm of the wet season thus far according to the locals. We could only allow a four-hour sleep before another 2.00 a.m. start, and we reached Kokoda just as our charter plane landed.
The students were physically exhausted but justifiably proud of their achievement. They now have a much better understanding of, and respect for, our Australian heritage and our relationship with Papua New Guinea. At Naoro village the chief advised us that a school was being built but that it could not afford the 200 kina per month for the two teachers it needed. The boys from Punchbowl Boys High School have agreed to establish a relationship with the village and to conduct the necessary fundraising—about $1,200 per annum—to pay for those two teachers. They are also going to work on establishing sister school relationships. On arrival back in Australia there was a great deal of excitement with the parent-student reunion, and Channel 7 covered every aspect of it.
I would like to pay tribute to Brett Murray from Camp Dare for this outstanding initiative. However, I am highly critical of the attitude of the Department of Education and Training, which did everything in its power to stop this venture. I wonder what makes the legal officers—bureaucrats—in these departments tick. Are they so happy with their jobs that they go home to their families and say, "By crikey I had a good day today. I stopped the best initiative I have heard of in the last 10 years. They nearly got it done but I stopped it"? Do their children say to them, "By god, daddy, we're proud of you". If that is the attitude in these bureaucrats in the Department of Education and Training, John Howard was right—these people should be culled out. These officers should concentrate on helping with the growth of our students, not inhibiting that growth. The young men who took part in this initiative proved to be worthy custodians of our spirit of Kokoda. Their parents and their school can be proud of them.
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