Tuesday, 8 September 2026

 Nathan LAMBERT (Preston) (13:28): I would like to congratulate Reservoir High School on a fantastic performance last week of Rock of Ages, the 1980s glam metal musical. In doing so I would like to recognise that it is not always easy for our government schools to put on school productions, especially Broadway musicals. In fact our parliamentary intern this year Nanami Zen of Monash University wrote a very good policy paper looking at the significant cost of those shows, the fact that there is no dedicated funding stream and the fact that they often rely extensively on unpaid volunteer time from school staff.

I do want to thank all the students and especially the staff involved in Reservoir High’s fantastic show. A particular shout-out to the rock band: Otto Divitaris on drums, Aiden Jakupi and Michael Brewer on guitar, Zac Jakupi on keys, Zoe Lyon and Daniel Luttick on bass and Yicheng Chen on lead guitar. I think you would appreciate, Deputy Speaker, my good friend former Wallaroo Tegan French, a staff member there, on the keyboards with the big 80s synth sound. Amongst the cast performances, a shout-out to the driving energy of Bixie Woolford and in particular to Arshman Ahmed and Yrel Guzman, who played star-crossed lovers Drew and Sherrie and put on my personal favourite performances of Poison’s Nothin’ but a Good Time and Foreigner’s Waiting for a Girl Like You. Well done to Patrick Murphy and all of the cast and crew.