Humanities

In our Year 10  Humanities class, we were learning about the rights of Australian citizens.  When I first found out that every Australian citizen was entitled to a free portrait of the queen, I was intrigued.

I decided to investigate this matter further so I researched it online. To my surprise, I was bombarded with many articles on this strange predicament, some even being one, two or three years old.

On the 19th February  2019, I emailed Bill Shorten, requesting a Portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.  Fast forward ten weeks of constant back and forth emailing with Mr Shorten’s correspondent, an agreement to meet on the 1st of May, at his office in Moonee Ponds was made.

When the day finally came three of my peers, Ms Murray and I, all drove to the small office that is Bill Shorten’s.  Upon entering the building, I was kindly greeted by his electoral officer, who “formally presented” me with my Nationhood material, not only containing the portrait, but also a pocket-sized copy of the Constitution, Australian Flag and an Australian Symbols booklet.  As soon as I got home, I showed my family, most of them looking very confused, but proud of my achievement.

I still have the portrait hanging up on my wall to this day, and it gets many comments from visitors.

Mitchell Frasca

Year 10 Student