Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to talk about the National Schools Constitutional Convention, which is happening this week. I had the pleasure of going down to meet the students who are attending the convention. From my electorate, Alex de Lacy from Our Lady of Sion College was, as a beneficiary of her intellect and her drive, one of those chosen for this convention.

The National Schools Constitutional Convention was started as an initiative by the constitutional centenary fund in 1995. It is a three-day convention and approximately 123 senior school students attend. They are mostly selected from feeder conventions conducted by the states and territories. So to get here they have to go through quite a bit of rigour. They will be here representing government, independent and Catholic schools.

The student delegates consider topics which are designed to increase their interest in the operation of the Australian Constitution—something we should all engage in. I do not think we actually engage enough in our Constitution. The topic of the 2015 convention is, 'Checks and balances: do we need an Australian bill of rights?' They will be discussing that and presenting their findings to the President of the Senate at the end of the week.

But the cheeky students asked if I would put them in Hansard, so here goes: Sparsh from Balwyn High School; Lilian from Northcote High School; Isaac from Camberwell Grammar School; Emerson from Ballarat Clarendon College; Alice from Kingswood College, another great school in my electorate; Sarah from MacKillop Catholic Regional College; Alex, as I said, from Our Lady of Sion College; Zakiya from Frankston High School; Rachael from Genazzano FCJ College; Monique from McKinnon Secondary College; Natania from Mount Waverley Secondary College—again, a great school in my electorate; Jasper from Camberwell Grammar School; Amelia from St Catherine's School; Jacob from Wodonga Senior Secondary College; Lucas from John Monash Science School—again, another school in my electorate; Lirim from Lalor Secondary College; Emily from University High School; Valerie from The MacRobertson Girls' High School; Julia from Lalor Secondary College; Charles from Scotch College; Prachi from The Peninsula School; Chloe from Sunbury College; Taylah from Glen Waverley Secondary College; Scott from Mount Clear College; and Michael from Haileybury College.

These are energetic, enthusiastic, intelligent kids. All of them are actually also undertaking year 12. So, at the height of their studies, they found the time to be part of a program to be selected to come to Canberra, and then to do the study and research. It is wonderful to see young people engaging in issues of national concern—looking beyond their own lives, going beyond the Instagram and the everyday and actually tackling these issues. I think these are some of the leaders of the future. But they are also some of the thoughtful people in our community now. We need not underestimate the value of young people and what they bring to our discussions at a society level. Nowadays we talk about them not being engaged, but I defy that. These were a great group of kids, who were enthusiastic, and I hope they had three days of fun in Canberra.