Tuesday, 29 July 2025

Holy Spirit Catholic Primary School, Manifold Heights

Chris COUZENS (Geelong) (16:43): As the member for Geelong I have the privilege of meeting many children and young people passionate about their community and who advocate for positive change. I recently had the pleasure of visiting Holy Spirit Catholic Primary School in Manifold Heights recently, where the Waste Warriors – year 6 students Millie, Pippa, Poppy, Mila and Amber – shared an insightful presentation with me. The Waste Warriors and their teacher Maria have been collaborating with Deakin University on a project known as GALS – Girls as Leaders in STEM. This initiative allows the girls to tackle real-world industry challenges and develop potential solutions using the STEM design process.

For this project the Waste Warriors focused on addressing the issue of microfibres in our oceans. They proposed creating a website through Google sites to educate their school community about microfibres and encourage them to purchase filters for their washing machines to minimise the number of microfibres entering our waterways. The Waste Warriors aspire to advocate for legislation that would require all washing machine manufacturers to include filters in their products. Their proposal also suggested the government might provide subsidies to households to help them acquire these washing machine filters. I thank them for their commitment and research into protecting the environment and our local oceans and waterways.