Mr ALISTER HENSKENS (Wahroonga) (17:09): The learners of today are the leaders of tomorrow. Quite often our young adults' interests and engagement with society will influence their success in future occupations and academic achievements. Nurturing their budding leadership skills now gives them the confidence to improve our community and prepares them for leadership roles throughout their lives. Recently I had a wonderful night hosting high school leaders from the Wahroonga electorate in Parliament for a tour, followed by a wonderful dinner in the President's Dining Room.

The leaders included Lily Thornthwaite and Nanetta Washaya from Abbotsleigh Senior School; Broden McLaughlin and Ruby Day from Barker College; Rachel Gibson and Elizabeth Vizor from Hornsby Girls High School; Heath Turner and Kieumars Jahromi from Knox Grammar School; Lucy Harrison and Louise Gunn from Loreto Normanhurst; Sidharth John and Jonathan Adji from Normanhurst Boys High School; Nia Michelson and Harrison Smith from Pennant Hills High School; Bella Walker and Julie Sheng from Pymble Ladies' College; Holly Belcastro and Kaylan Vila from St Leo's Catholic College; Soumya Sharma and Anna Manton from Turramurra High School; and Katie Miller and Jasper Small from Wahroonga Adventist School. The students joined me for a great dinner and an engaging conversation.

I always enjoy hearing the views of young people from so many diverse backgrounds. Quite often as I explain democracy and politics to younger generations I am reminded of the importance of nurturing debate and interest about political issues. I took the students on an informal tour of Parliament during which we visited the two parliamentary Chambers, and I told the students about the great history of this place, which is Australia's first Parliament. Something that I try to impress upon students is that democracy is a precious inheritance that many people around the world do not have the benefit of. The vast majority of the world's population do not live in countries where they can vote in democratic elections and change governments without guns, cannons or war. We saw an example of our democracy at work only last year during the change of State government in New South Wales. We had a peaceful changeover of governments without riots and protests as we see in many other countries across the world.

I like to tell students of my father's background in Europe before he came to Australia. My father's country was invaded on the day before his fifteenth birthday, and he joined the Dutch resistance at 17 years of age during World War II. I believe it is incredibly important to tell our younger generations about history and wars so that we do not repeat the mistakes of the past. The students asked many insightful questions and showed interest in the processes and procedures behind New South Wales laws being passed. It takes courage and confidence to discuss and debate important issues, and I was greatly impressed by the students' maturity, conviction and willingness to consider others' points of view. Hopefully they took inspiration from our discussion and came away realising their views are important and taken seriously.

The students then joined me for a dinner in the President's Dining Room, where I found out more about what each student's hopes are for the future and what careers they all want to pursue in the coming years. I also valued hearing from the students about what it is that they are most concerned about for their future. It is interesting to hear the topics that are on the minds of our younger generation, because their perspectives will form part of the electorate's views in the short-term future. It was a fun night. It was great to spend time with enthusiastic, intelligent and interesting students. The students were incredibly friendly and relaxed, and happy to meet each other. I had an enjoyable time, and I know that these students have bright futures ahead of them. They may even be inspired to enter politics, demonstrated by the keen interest that they displayed.

I have hosted this dinner every year for almost 10 years since I became a member of this place, with the exception of one COVID year. Whenever I do these dinners, I am always reminded that our future is in incredibly safe hands. The young leaders are incredibly impressive. They come from a broad range of schools within my electorate. We have private schools, selective schools, single-sex schools, co-educational and non-selective comprehensive schools, like the one that I attended when I went to school. All of those leaders were able to easily mingle with each other and have vibrant discussions about the future of our country, the current state of our society, and their hopes and dreams for the future. I always find the experience incredibly inspiring.