WHSC meet with Government 

On Tuesday 5th of March, two of our Executive Captains, Hannah Wright and Molly Downie went to a conference with Carina Garland, our local federal member of parliament. After school they went to her office in Mt Waverley, and in attendance of around 20 other Year 12 leaders from different schools around the electorate, participated in a roundtable discussion where they discussed what matters to them and what they are concerned about in school and the outside world, as Year 12 leaders. 

For an hour they discussed a range of topics that concerned them and wanted addressed by the government. These topics include awareness of the gender pay gap, sustainability, the housing crisis, work experience and how hard it is to find a suitable and beneficial placement, drop-out rates in schools and poor student/teacher relationships, the lack of learning important skills such as voting, how to pay tax etc, equal rights and inclusivity particularly for the LGBTQIA+ community, the dangers and advantages of AI and how hard it is to find true and real information nowadays due to the advancement of social media and AI. 

The roundtable discussion was extremely informative, with the students bouncing ideas off each other, contributing to the discussion and Carina writing notes on everything that was said with intentions of discussing these topics with other federal members. 

It is important for our executive leaders to discuss these topics on behalf of their generation, voicing their concerns and how they want these addressed and getting answers from a federal member to how these problems will be addressed. 

To anyone who wants answers or has concerned about a particular topic, they encourage everyone to contact Carina’s office. Overall, a successful and exciting day for everyone involved and our leaders are looking forward to meeting with Carina again soon. Thank you again to Molly and Hannah for being excellent representatives of our College! 

David Gill 

Leading Teacher of Student Voice, Agency & Leadership/Community Connectedness