❓ Minister Waldron enthusiastically details the progress of the Nature Play WA initiative, highlighting its benefits for children's development and community engagement, including an upcoming Anzac Day event on Rottnest Island.
AnsweredQoN 146Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
NATURE PLAY WA — children and nature network
Last year the minister informed the house of a new initiative that he launched through the Department of Sport and Recreation called Nature Play WA. Can the minister please advise what progress has been made on this program and how it is benefiting local communities throughout my electorate and the state of Western Australia as a whole? Mr T.K. WALDRON
Last year the minister informed the house of a new initiative that he launched through the Department of Sport and Recreation called Nature Play WA. Can the minister please advise what progress has been made on this program and how it is benefiting local communities throughout my electorate and the state of Western Australia as a whole? Mr T.K. WALDRON
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member very much for the question. I am delighted to answer this question because it is an initiative that I, the state government and the Department of Sport and Recreation are very, very proud of. It is something that we are proud to support because it actually delivers real benefit to our kids and to our communities. I think most members probably know about Nature Play. It is an initiative that was developed by the Department of Sport and Recreation and one that I personally strongly support and have tried to drive because of the benefits from it that I and others in the areas of health and law et cetera can see. Since this initiative started, Nature Play WA has become an incorporated not-for-profit organisation. Its mission is to raise the awareness of youngsters of the importance of unstructured play outdoors, reconnecting with nature and getting more involved with their natural environment. I am probably a bit older than other members, but that is something that baby boomers such as I did naturally. When I gave a talk on this initiative in the Perth Concert Hall, Richard Louv was over here with us and the concert hall was full. As I was speaking, I started to think about the things that I used to be able to do and that my kids cannot do. This initiative is about reconnecting those kids. It is about getting kids outdoors, having unstructured play and developing their physical, social, mental and cognitive skills. We have also found that when kids are outside and physically active, they enjoy it, they love it, and this leads to them joining sporting clubs and recreation groups et cetera. So that is a real positive. For the information of members, there are now 17 organisational members, and they include, obviously, the Department of Sport and Recreation, as well as representatives of the Australian Medical Association, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the Department of Environment and Conservation, the Heart Foundation and the Western Australian Primary Principals’ Association. So this initiative has strong support. At the last sports ministers’ conference, I had the opportunity to speak about Nature Play. There was a lot of interest in it, which I followed up. People asked for information about it, so I am hopeful that this initiative will be taken up over east, in New Zealand, and in Papua New Guinea also. It is something that people are recognising. I want to quickly mention an upcoming initiative of Nature Play WA, which members may have read about. There have been little articles in The West Australian about this. This Anzac Day, 800 primary school children and parents will descend on Rottnest Island for a day of nature play and unstructured play outdoors. This event will raise awareness of the role that nature plays in children’s healthy development, physical activity, building resilience, mateship and all those types of things. This will happen on Anzac Day, and I think this is something that goes to the heart of the Anzac spirit. The event will start with the families leaving very early in the morning—my family is going also. They will attend a dawn service at Rottnest, and then they will go on their nature play, which will include such things as snorkelling and riding on bike trails. As part of the Anzac Day commemorations, they will go to the gun emplacement et cetera, and they will reconnect with nature. There will be time for the kids to play in the bush, in an environmentally sound way, of course. I wanted to underline the interest in this initiative. One hundred and twenty seats have been allocated to those members of the general public who signed up to Nature Play on Facebook or via the e-newsletter. Those 120 seats sold out in nine minutes, so there is a real community push for this initiative. We have kept some tickets aside to allocate to special groups, such as the families of the FESA volunteers who fought the Roleystone fires. We are taking some of those people over to Rottnest with us, as well as Department for Child Protection foster care families and families with disabled children. We are trying to make it quite a day. If members want to know more about Nature Play, will they please have a chat with me or talk to the people from the Department of Sport and Recreation. It is an initiative that is growing, and I believe it is a very good thing. I want to acknowledge the work behind the scenes, particularly of the chairman, David Roberts, and all the volunteers, who are really driving this hard and doing a great job to help our children become healthy and active and to have a better social and mental outlook on their lives.
Mr T.K. WALDRON replied: I thank the member very much for the question. I am delighted to answer this question because it is an initiative that I, the state government and the Department of Sport and Recreation are very, very proud of. It is something that we are proud to support because it actually delivers real benefit to our kids and to our communities. I think most members probably know about Nature Play. It is an initiative that was developed by the Department of Sport and Recreation and one that I personally strongly support and have tried to drive because of the benefits from it that I and others in the areas of health and law et cetera can see. Since this initiative started, Nature Play WA has become an incorporated not-for-profit organisation. Its mission is to raise the awareness of youngsters of the importance of unstructured play outdoors, reconnecting with nature and getting more involved with their natural environment. I am probably a bit older than other members, but that is something that baby boomers such as I did naturally. When I gave a talk on this initiative in the Perth Concert Hall, Richard Louv was over here with us and the concert hall was full. As I was speaking, I started to think about the things that I used to be able to do and that my kids cannot do. This initiative is about reconnecting those kids. It is about getting kids outdoors, having unstructured play and developing their physical, social, mental and cognitive skills. We have also found that when kids are outside and physically active, they enjoy it, they love it, and this leads to them joining sporting clubs and recreation groups et cetera. So that is a real positive. For the information of members, there are now 17 organisational members, and they include, obviously, the Department of Sport and Recreation, as well as representatives of the Australian Medical Association, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the Department of Environment and Conservation, the Heart Foundation and the Western Australian Primary Principals’ Association. So this initiative has strong support. At the last sports ministers’ conference, I had the opportunity to speak about Nature Play. There was a lot of interest in it, which I followed up. People asked for information about it, so I am hopeful that this initiative will be taken up over east, in New Zealand, and in Papua New Guinea also. It is something that people are recognising. I want to quickly mention an upcoming initiative of Nature Play WA, which members may have read about. There have been little articles in The West Australian about this. This Anzac Day, 800 primary school children and parents will descend on Rottnest Island for a day of nature play and unstructured play outdoors. This event will raise awareness of the role that nature plays in children’s healthy development, physical activity, building resilience, mateship and all those types of things. This will happen on Anzac Day, and I think this is something that goes to the heart of the Anzac spirit. The event will start with the families leaving very early in the morning—my family is going also. They will attend a dawn service at Rottnest, and then they will go on their nature play, which will include such things as snorkelling and riding on bike trails. As part of the Anzac Day commemorations, they will go to the gun emplacement et cetera, and they will reconnect with nature. There will be time for the kids to play in the bush, in an environmentally sound way, of course. I wanted to underline the interest in this initiative. One hundred and twenty seats have been allocated to those members of the general public who signed up to Nature Play on Facebook or via the e-newsletter. Those 120 seats sold out in nine minutes, so there is a real community push for this initiative. We have kept some tickets aside to allocate to special groups, such as the families of the FESA volunteers who fought the Roleystone fires. We are taking some of those people over to Rottnest with us, as well as Department for Child Protection foster care families and families with disabled children. We are trying to make it quite a day. If members want to know more about Nature Play, will they please have a chat with me or talk to the people from the Department of Sport and Recreation. It is an initiative that is growing, and I believe it is a very good thing. I want to acknowledge the work behind the scenes, particularly of the chairman, David Roberts, and all the volunteers, who are really driving this hard and doing a great job to help our children become healthy and active and to have a better social and mental outlook on their lives.
I thank the member very much for the question. I am delighted to answer this question because it is an initiative that I, the state government and the Department of Sport and Recreation are very, very proud of. It is something that we are proud to support because it actually delivers real benefit to our kids and to our communities. I think most members probably know about Nature Play. It is an initiative that was developed by the Department of Sport and Recreation and one that I personally strongly support and have tried to drive because of the benefits from it that I and others in the areas of health and law et cetera can see. Since this initiative started, Nature Play WA has become an incorporated not-for-profit organisation. Its mission is to raise the awareness of youngsters of the importance of unstructured play outdoors, reconnecting with nature and getting more involved with their natural environment. I am probably a bit older than other members, but that is something that baby boomers such as I did naturally. When I gave a talk on this initiative in the Perth Concert Hall, Richard Louv was over here with us and the concert hall was full. As I was speaking, I started to think about the things that I used to be able to do and that my kids cannot do. This initiative is about reconnecting those kids. It is about getting kids outdoors, having unstructured play and developing their physical, social, mental and cognitive skills. We have also found that when kids are outside and physically active, they enjoy it, they love it, and this leads to them joining sporting clubs and recreation groups et cetera. So that is a real positive. For the information of members, there are now 17 organisational members, and they include, obviously, the Department of Sport and Recreation, as well as representatives of the Australian Medical Association, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the Department of Environment and Conservation, the Heart Foundation and the Western Australian Primary Principals’ Association. So this initiative has strong support. At the last sports ministers’ conference, I had the opportunity to speak about Nature Play. There was a lot of interest in it, which I followed up. People asked for information about it, so I am hopeful that this initiative will be taken up over east, in New Zealand, and in Papua New Guinea also. It is something that people are recognising. I want to quickly mention an upcoming initiative of Nature Play WA, which members may have read about. There have been little articles in The West Australian about this. This Anzac Day, 800 primary school children and parents will descend on Rottnest Island for a day of nature play and unstructured play outdoors. This event will raise awareness of the role that nature plays in children’s healthy development, physical activity, building resilience, mateship and all those types of things. This will happen on Anzac Day, and I think this is something that goes to the heart of the Anzac spirit. The event will start with the families leaving very early in the morning—my family is going also. They will attend a dawn service at Rottnest, and then they will go on their nature play, which will include such things as snorkelling and riding on bike trails. As part of the Anzac Day commemorations, they will go to the gun emplacement et cetera, and they will reconnect with nature. There will be time for the kids to play in the bush, in an environmentally sound way, of course. I wanted to underline the interest in this initiative. One hundred and twenty seats have been allocated to those members of the general public who signed up to Nature Play on Facebook or via the e-newsletter. Those 120 seats sold out in nine minutes, so there is a real community push for this initiative. We have kept some tickets aside to allocate to special groups, such as the families of the FESA volunteers who fought the Roleystone fires. We are taking some of those people over to Rottnest with us, as well as Department for Child Protection foster care families and families with disabled children. We are trying to make it quite a day. If members want to know more about Nature Play, will they please have a chat with me or talk to the people from the Department of Sport and Recreation. It is an initiative that is growing, and I believe it is a very good thing. I want to acknowledge the work behind the scenes, particularly of the chairman, David Roberts, and all the volunteers, who are really driving this hard and doing a great job to help our children become healthy and active and to have a better social and mental outlook on their lives.
I think most members probably know about Nature Play. It is an initiative that was developed by the Department of Sport and Recreation and one that I personally strongly support and have tried to drive because of the benefits from it that I and others in the areas of health and law et cetera can see. Since this initiative started, Nature Play WA has become an incorporated not-for-profit organisation. Its mission is to raise the awareness of youngsters of the importance of unstructured play outdoors, reconnecting with nature and getting more involved with their natural environment. I am probably a bit older than other members, but that is something that baby boomers such as I did naturally. When I gave a talk on this initiative in the Perth Concert Hall, Richard Louv was over here with us and the concert hall was full. As I was speaking, I started to think about the things that I used to be able to do and that my kids cannot do. This initiative is about reconnecting those kids. It is about getting kids outdoors, having unstructured play and developing their physical, social, mental and cognitive skills. We have also found that when kids are outside and physically active, they enjoy it, they love it, and this leads to them joining sporting clubs and recreation groups et cetera. So that is a real positive. For the information of members, there are now 17 organisational members, and they include, obviously, the Department of Sport and Recreation, as well as representatives of the Australian Medical Association, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the Department of Environment and Conservation, the Heart Foundation and the Western Australian Primary Principals’ Association. So this initiative has strong support. At the last sports ministers’ conference, I had the opportunity to speak about Nature Play. There was a lot of interest in it, which I followed up. People asked for information about it, so I am hopeful that this initiative will be taken up over east, in New Zealand, and in Papua New Guinea also. It is something that people are recognising. I want to quickly mention an upcoming initiative of Nature Play WA, which members may have read about. There have been little articles in The West Australian about this. This Anzac Day, 800 primary school children and parents will descend on Rottnest Island for a day of nature play and unstructured play outdoors. This event will raise awareness of the role that nature plays in children’s healthy development, physical activity, building resilience, mateship and all those types of things. This will happen on Anzac Day, and I think this is something that goes to the heart of the Anzac spirit. The event will start with the families leaving very early in the morning—my family is going also. They will attend a dawn service at Rottnest, and then they will go on their nature play, which will include such things as snorkelling and riding on bike trails. As part of the Anzac Day commemorations, they will go to the gun emplacement et cetera, and they will reconnect with nature. There will be time for the kids to play in the bush, in an environmentally sound way, of course. I wanted to underline the interest in this initiative. One hundred and twenty seats have been allocated to those members of the general public who signed up to Nature Play on Facebook or via the e-newsletter. Those 120 seats sold out in nine minutes, so there is a real community push for this initiative. We have kept some tickets aside to allocate to special groups, such as the families of the FESA volunteers who fought the Roleystone fires. We are taking some of those people over to Rottnest with us, as well as Department for Child Protection foster care families and families with disabled children. We are trying to make it quite a day. If members want to know more about Nature Play, will they please have a chat with me or talk to the people from the Department of Sport and Recreation. It is an initiative that is growing, and I believe it is a very good thing. I want to acknowledge the work behind the scenes, particularly of the chairman, David Roberts, and all the volunteers, who are really driving this hard and doing a great job to help our children become healthy and active and to have a better social and mental outlook on their lives.
For the information of members, there are now 17 organisational members, and they include, obviously, the Department of Sport and Recreation, as well as representatives of the Australian Medical Association, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the Department of Environment and Conservation, the Heart Foundation and the Western Australian Primary Principals’ Association. So this initiative has strong support. At the last sports ministers’ conference, I had the opportunity to speak about Nature Play. There was a lot of interest in it, which I followed up. People asked for information about it, so I am hopeful that this initiative will be taken up over east, in New Zealand, and in Papua New Guinea also. It is something that people are recognising. I want to quickly mention an upcoming initiative of Nature Play WA, which members may have read about. There have been little articles in The West Australian about this. This Anzac Day, 800 primary school children and parents will descend on Rottnest Island for a day of nature play and unstructured play outdoors. This event will raise awareness of the role that nature plays in children’s healthy development, physical activity, building resilience, mateship and all those types of things. This will happen on Anzac Day, and I think this is something that goes to the heart of the Anzac spirit. The event will start with the families leaving very early in the morning—my family is going also. They will attend a dawn service at Rottnest, and then they will go on their nature play, which will include such things as snorkelling and riding on bike trails. As part of the Anzac Day commemorations, they will go to the gun emplacement et cetera, and they will reconnect with nature. There will be time for the kids to play in the bush, in an environmentally sound way, of course. I wanted to underline the interest in this initiative. One hundred and twenty seats have been allocated to those members of the general public who signed up to Nature Play on Facebook or via the e-newsletter. Those 120 seats sold out in nine minutes, so there is a real community push for this initiative. We have kept some tickets aside to allocate to special groups, such as the families of the FESA volunteers who fought the Roleystone fires. We are taking some of those people over to Rottnest with us, as well as Department for Child Protection foster care families and families with disabled children. We are trying to make it quite a day. If members want to know more about Nature Play, will they please have a chat with me or talk to the people from the Department of Sport and Recreation. It is an initiative that is growing, and I believe it is a very good thing. I want to acknowledge the work behind the scenes, particularly of the chairman, David Roberts, and all the volunteers, who are really driving this hard and doing a great job to help our children become healthy and active and to have a better social and mental outlook on their lives.
At the last sports ministers’ conference, I had the opportunity to speak about Nature Play. There was a lot of interest in it, which I followed up. People asked for information about it, so I am hopeful that this initiative will be taken up over east, in New Zealand, and in Papua New Guinea also. It is something that people are recognising. I want to quickly mention an upcoming initiative of Nature Play WA, which members may have read about. There have been little articles in The West Australian about this. This Anzac Day, 800 primary school children and parents will descend on Rottnest Island for a day of nature play and unstructured play outdoors. This event will raise awareness of the role that nature plays in children’s healthy development, physical activity, building resilience, mateship and all those types of things. This will happen on Anzac Day, and I think this is something that goes to the heart of the Anzac spirit. The event will start with the families leaving very early in the morning—my family is going also. They will attend a dawn service at Rottnest, and then they will go on their nature play, which will include such things as snorkelling and riding on bike trails. As part of the Anzac Day commemorations, they will go to the gun emplacement et cetera, and they will reconnect with nature. There will be time for the kids to play in the bush, in an environmentally sound way, of course. I wanted to underline the interest in this initiative. One hundred and twenty seats have been allocated to those members of the general public who signed up to Nature Play on Facebook or via the e-newsletter. Those 120 seats sold out in nine minutes, so there is a real community push for this initiative. We have kept some tickets aside to allocate to special groups, such as the families of the FESA volunteers who fought the Roleystone fires. We are taking some of those people over to Rottnest with us, as well as Department for Child Protection foster care families and families with disabled children. We are trying to make it quite a day. If members want to know more about Nature Play, will they please have a chat with me or talk to the people from the Department of Sport and Recreation. It is an initiative that is growing, and I believe it is a very good thing. I want to acknowledge the work behind the scenes, particularly of the chairman, David Roberts, and all the volunteers, who are really driving this hard and doing a great job to help our children become healthy and active and to have a better social and mental outlook on their lives.
I want to quickly mention an upcoming initiative of Nature Play WA, which members may have read about. There have been little articles in The West Australian about this. This Anzac Day, 800 primary school children and parents will descend on Rottnest Island for a day of nature play and unstructured play outdoors. This event will raise awareness of the role that nature plays in children’s healthy development, physical activity, building resilience, mateship and all those types of things. This will happen on Anzac Day, and I think this is something that goes to the heart of the Anzac spirit. The event will start with the families leaving very early in the morning—my family is going also. They will attend a dawn service at Rottnest, and then they will go on their nature play, which will include such things as snorkelling and riding on bike trails. As part of the Anzac Day commemorations, they will go to the gun emplacement et cetera, and they will reconnect with nature. There will be time for the kids to play in the bush, in an environmentally sound way, of course. I wanted to underline the interest in this initiative. One hundred and twenty seats have been allocated to those members of the general public who signed up to Nature Play on Facebook or via the e-newsletter. Those 120 seats sold out in nine minutes, so there is a real community push for this initiative. We have kept some tickets aside to allocate to special groups, such as the families of the FESA volunteers who fought the Roleystone fires. We are taking some of those people over to Rottnest with us, as well as Department for Child Protection foster care families and families with disabled children. We are trying to make it quite a day. If members want to know more about Nature Play, will they please have a chat with me or talk to the people from the Department of Sport and Recreation. It is an initiative that is growing, and I believe it is a very good thing. I want to acknowledge the work behind the scenes, particularly of the chairman, David Roberts, and all the volunteers, who are really driving this hard and doing a great job to help our children become healthy and active and to have a better social and mental outlook on their lives.
I wanted to underline the interest in this initiative. One hundred and twenty seats have been allocated to those members of the general public who signed up to Nature Play on Facebook or via the e-newsletter. Those 120 seats sold out in nine minutes, so there is a real community push for this initiative. We have kept some tickets aside to allocate to special groups, such as the families of the FESA volunteers who fought the Roleystone fires. We are taking some of those people over to Rottnest with us, as well as Department for Child Protection foster care families and families with disabled children. We are trying to make it quite a day. If members want to know more about Nature Play, will they please have a chat with me or talk to the people from the Department of Sport and Recreation. It is an initiative that is growing, and I believe it is a very good thing. I want to acknowledge the work behind the scenes, particularly of the chairman, David Roberts, and all the volunteers, who are really driving this hard and doing a great job to help our children become healthy and active and to have a better social and mental outlook on their lives.
If members want to know more about Nature Play, will they please have a chat with me or talk to the people from the Department of Sport and Recreation. It is an initiative that is growing, and I believe it is a very good thing. I want to acknowledge the work behind the scenes, particularly of the chairman, David Roberts, and all the volunteers, who are really driving this hard and doing a great job to help our children become healthy and active and to have a better social and mental outlook on their lives.
Mr T.K. WALDRON replied: I thank the member very much for the question. I am delighted to answer this question because it is an initiative that I, the state government and the Department of Sport and Recreation are very, very proud of. It is something that we are proud to support because it actually delivers real benefit to our kids and to our communities. I think most members probably know about Nature Play. It is an initiative that was developed by the Department of Sport and Recreation and one that I personally strongly support and have tried to drive because of the benefits from it that I and others in the areas of health and law et cetera can see. Since this initiative started, Nature Play WA has become an incorporated not-for-profit organisation. Its mission is to raise the awareness of youngsters of the importance of unstructured play outdoors, reconnecting with nature and getting more involved with their natural environment. I am probably a bit older than other members, but that is something that baby boomers such as I did naturally. When I gave a talk on this initiative in the Perth Concert Hall, Richard Louv was over here with us and the concert hall was full. As I was speaking, I started to think about the things that I used to be able to do and that my kids cannot do. This initiative is about reconnecting those kids. It is about getting kids outdoors, having unstructured play and developing their physical, social, mental and cognitive skills. We have also found that when kids are outside and physically active, they enjoy it, they love it, and this leads to them joining sporting clubs and recreation groups et cetera. So that is a real positive. For the information of members, there are now 17 organisational members, and they include, obviously, the Department of Sport and Recreation, as well as representatives of the Australian Medical Association, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the Department of Environment and Conservation, the Heart Foundation and the Western Australian Primary Principals’ Association. So this initiative has strong support. At the last sports ministers’ conference, I had the opportunity to speak about Nature Play. There was a lot of interest in it, which I followed up. People asked for information about it, so I am hopeful that this initiative will be taken up over east, in New Zealand, and in Papua New Guinea also. It is something that people are recognising. I want to quickly mention an upcoming initiative of Nature Play WA, which members may have read about. There have been little articles in The West Australian about this. This Anzac Day, 800 primary school children and parents will descend on Rottnest Island for a day of nature play and unstructured play outdoors. This event will raise awareness of the role that nature plays in children’s healthy development, physical activity, building resilience, mateship and all those types of things. This will happen on Anzac Day, and I think this is something that goes to the heart of the Anzac spirit. The event will start with the families leaving very early in the morning—my family is going also. They will attend a dawn service at Rottnest, and then they will go on their nature play, which will include such things as snorkelling and riding on bike trails. As part of the Anzac Day commemorations, they will go to the gun emplacement et cetera, and they will reconnect with nature. There will be time for the kids to play in the bush, in an environmentally sound way, of course. I wanted to underline the interest in this initiative. One hundred and twenty seats have been allocated to those members of the general public who signed up to Nature Play on Facebook or via the e-newsletter. Those 120 seats sold out in nine minutes, so there is a real community push for this initiative. We have kept some tickets aside to allocate to special groups, such as the families of the FESA volunteers who fought the Roleystone fires. We are taking some of those people over to Rottnest with us, as well as Department for Child Protection foster care families and families with disabled children. We are trying to make it quite a day. If members want to know more about Nature Play, will they please have a chat with me or talk to the people from the Department of Sport and Recreation. It is an initiative that is growing, and I believe it is a very good thing. I want to acknowledge the work behind the scenes, particularly of the chairman, David Roberts, and all the volunteers, who are really driving this hard and doing a great job to help our children become healthy and active and to have a better social and mental outlook on their lives.
I thank the member very much for the question. I am delighted to answer this question because it is an initiative that I, the state government and the Department of Sport and Recreation are very, very proud of. It is something that we are proud to support because it actually delivers real benefit to our kids and to our communities. I think most members probably know about Nature Play. It is an initiative that was developed by the Department of Sport and Recreation and one that I personally strongly support and have tried to drive because of the benefits from it that I and others in the areas of health and law et cetera can see. Since this initiative started, Nature Play WA has become an incorporated not-for-profit organisation. Its mission is to raise the awareness of youngsters of the importance of unstructured play outdoors, reconnecting with nature and getting more involved with their natural environment. I am probably a bit older than other members, but that is something that baby boomers such as I did naturally. When I gave a talk on this initiative in the Perth Concert Hall, Richard Louv was over here with us and the concert hall was full. As I was speaking, I started to think about the things that I used to be able to do and that my kids cannot do. This initiative is about reconnecting those kids. It is about getting kids outdoors, having unstructured play and developing their physical, social, mental and cognitive skills. We have also found that when kids are outside and physically active, they enjoy it, they love it, and this leads to them joining sporting clubs and recreation groups et cetera. So that is a real positive. For the information of members, there are now 17 organisational members, and they include, obviously, the Department of Sport and Recreation, as well as representatives of the Australian Medical Association, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the Department of Environment and Conservation, the Heart Foundation and the Western Australian Primary Principals’ Association. So this initiative has strong support. At the last sports ministers’ conference, I had the opportunity to speak about Nature Play. There was a lot of interest in it, which I followed up. People asked for information about it, so I am hopeful that this initiative will be taken up over east, in New Zealand, and in Papua New Guinea also. It is something that people are recognising. I want to quickly mention an upcoming initiative of Nature Play WA, which members may have read about. There have been little articles in The West Australian about this. This Anzac Day, 800 primary school children and parents will descend on Rottnest Island for a day of nature play and unstructured play outdoors. This event will raise awareness of the role that nature plays in children’s healthy development, physical activity, building resilience, mateship and all those types of things. This will happen on Anzac Day, and I think this is something that goes to the heart of the Anzac spirit. The event will start with the families leaving very early in the morning—my family is going also. They will attend a dawn service at Rottnest, and then they will go on their nature play, which will include such things as snorkelling and riding on bike trails. As part of the Anzac Day commemorations, they will go to the gun emplacement et cetera, and they will reconnect with nature. There will be time for the kids to play in the bush, in an environmentally sound way, of course. I wanted to underline the interest in this initiative. One hundred and twenty seats have been allocated to those members of the general public who signed up to Nature Play on Facebook or via the e-newsletter. Those 120 seats sold out in nine minutes, so there is a real community push for this initiative. We have kept some tickets aside to allocate to special groups, such as the families of the FESA volunteers who fought the Roleystone fires. We are taking some of those people over to Rottnest with us, as well as Department for Child Protection foster care families and families with disabled children. We are trying to make it quite a day. If members want to know more about Nature Play, will they please have a chat with me or talk to the people from the Department of Sport and Recreation. It is an initiative that is growing, and I believe it is a very good thing. I want to acknowledge the work behind the scenes, particularly of the chairman, David Roberts, and all the volunteers, who are really driving this hard and doing a great job to help our children become healthy and active and to have a better social and mental outlook on their lives.
I think most members probably know about Nature Play. It is an initiative that was developed by the Department of Sport and Recreation and one that I personally strongly support and have tried to drive because of the benefits from it that I and others in the areas of health and law et cetera can see. Since this initiative started, Nature Play WA has become an incorporated not-for-profit organisation. Its mission is to raise the awareness of youngsters of the importance of unstructured play outdoors, reconnecting with nature and getting more involved with their natural environment. I am probably a bit older than other members, but that is something that baby boomers such as I did naturally. When I gave a talk on this initiative in the Perth Concert Hall, Richard Louv was over here with us and the concert hall was full. As I was speaking, I started to think about the things that I used to be able to do and that my kids cannot do. This initiative is about reconnecting those kids. It is about getting kids outdoors, having unstructured play and developing their physical, social, mental and cognitive skills. We have also found that when kids are outside and physically active, they enjoy it, they love it, and this leads to them joining sporting clubs and recreation groups et cetera. So that is a real positive. For the information of members, there are now 17 organisational members, and they include, obviously, the Department of Sport and Recreation, as well as representatives of the Australian Medical Association, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the Department of Environment and Conservation, the Heart Foundation and the Western Australian Primary Principals’ Association. So this initiative has strong support. At the last sports ministers’ conference, I had the opportunity to speak about Nature Play. There was a lot of interest in it, which I followed up. People asked for information about it, so I am hopeful that this initiative will be taken up over east, in New Zealand, and in Papua New Guinea also. It is something that people are recognising. I want to quickly mention an upcoming initiative of Nature Play WA, which members may have read about. There have been little articles in The West Australian about this. This Anzac Day, 800 primary school children and parents will descend on Rottnest Island for a day of nature play and unstructured play outdoors. This event will raise awareness of the role that nature plays in children’s healthy development, physical activity, building resilience, mateship and all those types of things. This will happen on Anzac Day, and I think this is something that goes to the heart of the Anzac spirit. The event will start with the families leaving very early in the morning—my family is going also. They will attend a dawn service at Rottnest, and then they will go on their nature play, which will include such things as snorkelling and riding on bike trails. As part of the Anzac Day commemorations, they will go to the gun emplacement et cetera, and they will reconnect with nature. There will be time for the kids to play in the bush, in an environmentally sound way, of course. I wanted to underline the interest in this initiative. One hundred and twenty seats have been allocated to those members of the general public who signed up to Nature Play on Facebook or via the e-newsletter. Those 120 seats sold out in nine minutes, so there is a real community push for this initiative. We have kept some tickets aside to allocate to special groups, such as the families of the FESA volunteers who fought the Roleystone fires. We are taking some of those people over to Rottnest with us, as well as Department for Child Protection foster care families and families with disabled children. We are trying to make it quite a day. If members want to know more about Nature Play, will they please have a chat with me or talk to the people from the Department of Sport and Recreation. It is an initiative that is growing, and I believe it is a very good thing. I want to acknowledge the work behind the scenes, particularly of the chairman, David Roberts, and all the volunteers, who are really driving this hard and doing a great job to help our children become healthy and active and to have a better social and mental outlook on their lives.
For the information of members, there are now 17 organisational members, and they include, obviously, the Department of Sport and Recreation, as well as representatives of the Australian Medical Association, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the Department of Environment and Conservation, the Heart Foundation and the Western Australian Primary Principals’ Association. So this initiative has strong support. At the last sports ministers’ conference, I had the opportunity to speak about Nature Play. There was a lot of interest in it, which I followed up. People asked for information about it, so I am hopeful that this initiative will be taken up over east, in New Zealand, and in Papua New Guinea also. It is something that people are recognising. I want to quickly mention an upcoming initiative of Nature Play WA, which members may have read about. There have been little articles in The West Australian about this. This Anzac Day, 800 primary school children and parents will descend on Rottnest Island for a day of nature play and unstructured play outdoors. This event will raise awareness of the role that nature plays in children’s healthy development, physical activity, building resilience, mateship and all those types of things. This will happen on Anzac Day, and I think this is something that goes to the heart of the Anzac spirit. The event will start with the families leaving very early in the morning—my family is going also. They will attend a dawn service at Rottnest, and then they will go on their nature play, which will include such things as snorkelling and riding on bike trails. As part of the Anzac Day commemorations, they will go to the gun emplacement et cetera, and they will reconnect with nature. There will be time for the kids to play in the bush, in an environmentally sound way, of course. I wanted to underline the interest in this initiative. One hundred and twenty seats have been allocated to those members of the general public who signed up to Nature Play on Facebook or via the e-newsletter. Those 120 seats sold out in nine minutes, so there is a real community push for this initiative. We have kept some tickets aside to allocate to special groups, such as the families of the FESA volunteers who fought the Roleystone fires. We are taking some of those people over to Rottnest with us, as well as Department for Child Protection foster care families and families with disabled children. We are trying to make it quite a day. If members want to know more about Nature Play, will they please have a chat with me or talk to the people from the Department of Sport and Recreation. It is an initiative that is growing, and I believe it is a very good thing. I want to acknowledge the work behind the scenes, particularly of the chairman, David Roberts, and all the volunteers, who are really driving this hard and doing a great job to help our children become healthy and active and to have a better social and mental outlook on their lives.
At the last sports ministers’ conference, I had the opportunity to speak about Nature Play. There was a lot of interest in it, which I followed up. People asked for information about it, so I am hopeful that this initiative will be taken up over east, in New Zealand, and in Papua New Guinea also. It is something that people are recognising. I want to quickly mention an upcoming initiative of Nature Play WA, which members may have read about. There have been little articles in The West Australian about this. This Anzac Day, 800 primary school children and parents will descend on Rottnest Island for a day of nature play and unstructured play outdoors. This event will raise awareness of the role that nature plays in children’s healthy development, physical activity, building resilience, mateship and all those types of things. This will happen on Anzac Day, and I think this is something that goes to the heart of the Anzac spirit. The event will start with the families leaving very early in the morning—my family is going also. They will attend a dawn service at Rottnest, and then they will go on their nature play, which will include such things as snorkelling and riding on bike trails. As part of the Anzac Day commemorations, they will go to the gun emplacement et cetera, and they will reconnect with nature. There will be time for the kids to play in the bush, in an environmentally sound way, of course. I wanted to underline the interest in this initiative. One hundred and twenty seats have been allocated to those members of the general public who signed up to Nature Play on Facebook or via the e-newsletter. Those 120 seats sold out in nine minutes, so there is a real community push for this initiative. We have kept some tickets aside to allocate to special groups, such as the families of the FESA volunteers who fought the Roleystone fires. We are taking some of those people over to Rottnest with us, as well as Department for Child Protection foster care families and families with disabled children. We are trying to make it quite a day. If members want to know more about Nature Play, will they please have a chat with me or talk to the people from the Department of Sport and Recreation. It is an initiative that is growing, and I believe it is a very good thing. I want to acknowledge the work behind the scenes, particularly of the chairman, David Roberts, and all the volunteers, who are really driving this hard and doing a great job to help our children become healthy and active and to have a better social and mental outlook on their lives.
I want to quickly mention an upcoming initiative of Nature Play WA, which members may have read about. There have been little articles in The West Australian about this. This Anzac Day, 800 primary school children and parents will descend on Rottnest Island for a day of nature play and unstructured play outdoors. This event will raise awareness of the role that nature plays in children’s healthy development, physical activity, building resilience, mateship and all those types of things. This will happen on Anzac Day, and I think this is something that goes to the heart of the Anzac spirit. The event will start with the families leaving very early in the morning—my family is going also. They will attend a dawn service at Rottnest, and then they will go on their nature play, which will include such things as snorkelling and riding on bike trails. As part of the Anzac Day commemorations, they will go to the gun emplacement et cetera, and they will reconnect with nature. There will be time for the kids to play in the bush, in an environmentally sound way, of course. I wanted to underline the interest in this initiative. One hundred and twenty seats have been allocated to those members of the general public who signed up to Nature Play on Facebook or via the e-newsletter. Those 120 seats sold out in nine minutes, so there is a real community push for this initiative. We have kept some tickets aside to allocate to special groups, such as the families of the FESA volunteers who fought the Roleystone fires. We are taking some of those people over to Rottnest with us, as well as Department for Child Protection foster care families and families with disabled children. We are trying to make it quite a day. If members want to know more about Nature Play, will they please have a chat with me or talk to the people from the Department of Sport and Recreation. It is an initiative that is growing, and I believe it is a very good thing. I want to acknowledge the work behind the scenes, particularly of the chairman, David Roberts, and all the volunteers, who are really driving this hard and doing a great job to help our children become healthy and active and to have a better social and mental outlook on their lives.
I wanted to underline the interest in this initiative. One hundred and twenty seats have been allocated to those members of the general public who signed up to Nature Play on Facebook or via the e-newsletter. Those 120 seats sold out in nine minutes, so there is a real community push for this initiative. We have kept some tickets aside to allocate to special groups, such as the families of the FESA volunteers who fought the Roleystone fires. We are taking some of those people over to Rottnest with us, as well as Department for Child Protection foster care families and families with disabled children. We are trying to make it quite a day. If members want to know more about Nature Play, will they please have a chat with me or talk to the people from the Department of Sport and Recreation. It is an initiative that is growing, and I believe it is a very good thing. I want to acknowledge the work behind the scenes, particularly of the chairman, David Roberts, and all the volunteers, who are really driving this hard and doing a great job to help our children become healthy and active and to have a better social and mental outlook on their lives.
If members want to know more about Nature Play, will they please have a chat with me or talk to the people from the Department of Sport and Recreation. It is an initiative that is growing, and I believe it is a very good thing. I want to acknowledge the work behind the scenes, particularly of the chairman, David Roberts, and all the volunteers, who are really driving this hard and doing a great job to help our children become healthy and active and to have a better social and mental outlook on their lives.
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