Is everyone sitting in Federal Parliament really this out of touch?

"Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said the country needed more young people to understand how democracy worked.

"This is why I've boosted funding for school students to get out of the classroom and visit Parliament House and the War Memorial. To understand what generations of Australians have fought and died for," he said."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-18/civic-education-curriculum-assessment-students/104946138

A trip to Canberra, subsidised or not, won't be very informative about anything except big beautiful buildings and confusing streets.

Civics is a huge topic, much bigger than the War Memorial and Federal Parliament buildings in Canberra.

IMO better would be: Some decent classroom lessons, mock parliaments and analysis of relevant news reports on issues governments are currently concerned about. In later years, talk about voting, lobbying and how legislation is developed - consultation, green papers, white papers, cabinet submissions, parliament. The role of govt and opposition. The three arms - executive, legislative and judicial branches. Constitutions and Acts of Parliament, regulations etc etc.

Maybe followed by a visit to a local council meeting (or state parliament if it's close by), the local cop shop, a local magistrates court. This could be supplemented by q&a visits from parliamentarians of different parties, a judge/magistrate or two, a lawyer or two, a policeman or two, a public servant or three, an electoral office person, and some time watching federal parliament on tele.

All of the above might be OTT, but some of it would be quite useful and informative IMO. And who knows - we might get some good politicians or public servants out of it :)

#Auspol #ALP #JasonClare #Australia #Education #Civics