Earlier this term our Year 9 Nitzan students were enormously privileged to be able to meet with a panel of individuals involved in the world of politics in order to expand their understanding of the political process and to launch their deep investigation of social justice issues and involvement in changemaking. The panel was attended by Federal Member for MacNamara, Josh Burns; Federal Member for Higgins, Katie Allen; State Member for Caulfield and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, David Southwick; State Member of the Victorian Legislative Council for the Southern Metro Region, Nina Taylor; Parliament House staffer, Christopher Gribben; and Tobi Rosengarten, a first year lawyer who has been involved in politics working for a variety of state members.

Panellists spoke to the students about their motivations for becoming involved in politics and why they were driven to try to build their communities and support the development of what they considered to be just and fair policies.

During this session it occurred to me that while our panellists had very different world views and are associated with different points on the political spectrum, there was a unanimity in their desire to implement positive changes and to better society.

The panel also served as a model of how political opponents can behave in a mutually respectful manner. This is in sharp contrast to the adversarial nature of contemporary Australian politics as it is so often demonstrated in social and mainstream media, political advertising and in candidate debates.

A highlight of the political panel was when a group of students summarised their key take-away to be that they planned to discuss their views with their parents in the lead up to the Federal election as even though they are too young to vote, they still felt that their views should be taken into account.

This is a position that was echoed by Year 10 student, Ella Simons, who is the subject of an Archibald Prize finalist portrait. Ella was the Australian delegate at the Youth4Climate summit, ahead of COP26 [UN Climate Change Conference] in Glasgow, where she was the youngest of 400 international delegates. Ella said that she wants to use the “platform [created by the Archibald Prize] to really push the things that I care about and to show that young people have a voice in making change in this world.” She encouraged other young people to get involved in the upcoming election, saying, “Use your voice in this democracy. Young people can’t vote yet but we still have a way to make our voices heard and to make sure that our leaders know how we want to see our future.”

In Year 6 we develop our students’ sense of citizenship and their understanding of the political landscape by sending them to Canberra in order to see where our Federal institutions of democracy are housed. Our students will have great access to Parliament House and will meet parliamentarians. They will develop an understanding of the important characteristics of a free, open and democratic society.

In Australia, our right to vote in free and safe elections is so normalised that it is easy to take it for granted. In my view, the invitation to engage in decision making around the future shape of our society is a sincere privilege. I believe that this also marks a vital learning opportunity for our students and I encourage our parent community to engage with your children around your voting intentions and to seek their views about what is important to them and explain what is important to you. I think that there is also a great opportunity to bring your children along with you when you vote so that they can gain practical insight into democracy in action.

Shabbat Shalom,

Marc Light