The following speech that I am about to read was written by Noah who has spent the day volunteering in my office, learning about how the ACT Legislative Assembly works and the work that my team does on a sitting day. These are Noah’s words:
Today I joined (Ms Orr, one of my local members) office, with very little idea of what to expect. I have been engaged in politics for what feels like a long time, for a young person like me, and I was pleased I would get to do something substantive on the subject, today was a milestone for me. During my primary schooling I had visited the Federal Parliament, the NSW Parliament, the Victorian Parliament, but never here, our Territory Legislative Assembly. This place is not something I thought about until today, I admit I did not place much importance on this body until very recently and knew little about it despite my intense political interest.
This brings me to civic education. I have had very little. What I have learned to appreciate only today is the efforts that parties and members make to reach out to the public, to speak to their issues and advocate for shared values, but I feel that it cannot reach the people of my generation in any substantive, official ways. Because this Assembly, as a body itself, perhaps the body with the most daily affect over my life, I know nothing about. Today, during my first Question time and my first visit yet to this place … I am unique among my peers, my friends and those I go to school with.
My peers are, contrary to my general point here, political. They are aware of the issues they are passionate about. They are willing to engage to attempt to make a difference. They are excited to vote and know who they want to vote for. But do they know what happens after that? Do they have access to what the Assembly, what the government is doing, or only what their organisation tells them?
When I was in primary school we had a civics class, which remains my latest general education in elections, in Parliament, and in the Executive. All of this for the Federal government, none on the Assembly. There are two issues here, one of course is that my last education on the subject was 5 years ago, and I was 11. I wonder why, especially in a compulsory-voting nation and Territory, where we value democracy, I do not know truly how to engage with it. In Canberra our federal voice is stifled, and our territory and local governance consolidated, and so it is important that we, as young people who make up a significant bloc in this city, are not stifled or limited because our education on this Assembly did not match the already limited education I received on the Federal government.
This subject is one of the most important for us to learn about because it affects our ability to make change on all other subjects, and having a limited education on the governance and civics is politically debilitating and puts us at greater risk of exploitative politics, potentially even related to this Assembly. The education on the subject must be reformed to address issues which range widely, because of the unique role of this Assembly, from assisted dying to the length of grass in public spaces. Today I learnt more about this body than I ever have at school, and that cannot continue.
Civic education is a widely researched and its expansion broadly supported, and issues relating to poor civic education in Australia have been reported on for years, and it must improve in Canberra. Older students should be reminded of this body particularly and how its unique elections work, along with its unique responsibilities.
I think it is fair to say we have made Noah very enthusiastic about spreading the word on what the Assembly does.
In the time left, I would also like to give thanks to my staff. Last year, they wrote me a lovely speech that went for five minutes, and I did not actually get to thank them, so, instead of summarising everything we have done this year, I would like to thank Jayden and Ciara for all the hard work that they do. I am very grateful and appreciative of everything they get stuck into and help me to achieve, and I wish them a good break before we come back in 2024 to do even more together.
