What Matters? 2005 Winners Announced

What Matters? 2005 Winners Announced

by Whitlam Institute

What Matters? Overall Winners William Overs and Chris Summers with UWS Vice Chancellor Prof Jan Reid

Hugh Mackay Inaugural What Matters? Lecture

Year 5/6 boy Rohan Howitt Avoca Beach Public School
Year 5/6 girl Natalie Baker Balmain Public School
Year 7/8 boy joint winner Julius Macefield Sydney Boys High
Year 7/8 boy joint winner Sam Darcy Sydney Boys High
Year 7/8 girl winner Janecke Anderson Loreto Kirribilli
Year 9/10 boy and joint overall winner William Overs Barellan Central School
Year 9/10 girl Rebecca Work Willoughby Girls High School
Year 11/12 boy and joint overall winner Chris Summers Killara High School
Year 11/12 girl Emily Fleming Alstonville High School

Rohan Howitt
Avoca Beach Public School
Year 5/6 Boy

Very, Very Angry

One thing that really matters to in 2005 is the way we treat immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers. After looking at letters and articles I know that the Howard Government has the wrong idea. Amanda Vanstone is responsible for an immigration policy that discriminates against refugees. Vanstone's policy led to kids being taken from schools in broad daylight, and a freeborn Australian citizen being sent to a detention centre.

In March it was revealed that Immigration Department officials had marched into schools such as Stanmore, Kogarah and Chester Hill, and placed children in Villawood detention centre. I think it is disgusting that our Federal government could act like this in our modern Australia.

In his letter to the Sydney Morning Herald on March 18, 2005, Jacob Vronen, a holocaust survivor said that the act of taking children from schools brought back memories of Gestapo taking Jews from an all-Jewish school. He wrote about how his classes started at 40, but dwindled to 15, how the Gestapo just barged in and took kids away, never to be heard of again. If Amanda Vanstone's mandatory detention policy is this similar to the holocaust, then surely we should stop now.

"It sure puts paid to the old lie that schools days are the happiest days when, in the 21st century, a Sydney primary school can be raided by brutish and clearly insensitive immigration officials who forcibly remove children from the presumed safety of their classrooms. No wonder the little innocents left behind are fearful for their own safety. What a shocking image we present to the world. Amanda Vanstone, hang your head in shame." This was Eddie Raggett's view on the same day.

Michelle Grattan's article in the Sun-Herald on May 29 described Vanstone's running of the Immigration Department as "bungling and incompetent." She wrote about a priest unable to get a guarantee that male guards would not be able to watch female prisoners go to the toilet in Baxter Detention Centre. I think that is terrible, and makes me wonder what other countries think of us.

Cornelia Rau was an Australian citizen but ended up in detention for months. This surely shows that something is wrong with the government's immigration policy. Just as bad is the case of Vivian Alvarez. Although she was legally allowed to stay here the Immigration Department deported her to the Philippines when she was very sick. Then people tried to find her, the Immigration Department said they didn't know where she was. How can this be?

I thought it was also terrible the babies were given barcodes when they were held in detention. It made them seem they weren't human. When I read about young children never getting the chance to play with other kids I felt very sad.

Despite all these examples and many more, the government still didn't want to do anything. When Liberal MP Petro Georgiou tried to get the Prime Minister to change his policy, the Sydney Morning Herald said "he was very, very angry" (May 25). He should've been glad there were people in his own party who realised how bad his policies were.

The government has decided to now let women and children out of detention centres, but that still breaks up families. Even after all these examples of things going wrong, I hear on today's news that Queensland government is complaining that the Immigration Department have someone else locked up in jail. I wonder when it will all end?

Natalie Baker
Balmain Public School
Year 5/6 Girl

Funding for government schools in NSW

Many people do not understand the importance of a good education. To me, it is an important way of achieving a fairer society. In order to enable children to achieve the best they can, they must be provided with a well resourced and adequately funded school. I will now outline some of the areas that need to be funded by the government of NSW.

The recent review of public education has indicated that although the government has improved in many areas in the past ten years e.g. smaller class sizes for kindergarten classes, there still remain other problems. Even though $115 million is spent on schools, it is estimated that $180 million is needed to fund run-down schools, which include the majority of schools in NSW. Many schools maintenance problems include: termites in floor boards which has just been carpeted over, demountable classrooms which have become permanent, disgusting stench in toilets (even after cleaning), classrooms in a dangerous state, torn carpets held together by tape, terrible staff rooms, broken windows and tiny sized classrooms - just o name a few. How can students have a proper, modern education in these conditions!

As well, many schools are still not equipped with wheelchair access. This can be a problem for disabled people and can reduce the number of people coming into NSW schools; both disabled students themselves and disabled family members of able bodied students. This problem can cause disabled students to travel long distances to go to schools outside their locality.

The amount of equipment in many public schools is poor. Computer maintenance is a huge issue and many times computers are not working properly in order for students to continue their learning. Other equipment such as mathematics utensils can be outdated, broken and are not usually replaced immediately because the school cannot afford to do so.

Many children who come from non-English speaking backgrounds need extra help with their English. This extra help should be provided at every school for all children who need assistance for however long it takes. The NSW government has done a good job of reducing class sizes from kindergarten to year 2, but other classes of older years also need reductions. If this is done, it will decrease the level of stress and the workload for teachers and will make it easier for students to concentrate and learn in a quieter environment.

Another suggested area of improvement is to increase the range of subjects provided for secondary school students. Different children have different talents and interests. Recently the NSW government has been cutting down on subjects in the sports and arts fields. These cuts mean that students who are not as clever in sporting or artistic subjects do not have the extra time that is needed for them to improve in these skills. The lack of variety of subjects could mean that some students could lose interest in school altogether.

Finally, I would sum up by saying that I believe the NSW government has put a lot of effort into improving our public schools, but there is still more to be done. Everyone in the community needs to help boost the image of our public schools in any way they can. Public schools are worth funding.

Julius Macefield
Sydney Boys High School
Year 7/8 Boy

Redfern... It's a riot!

Boy, I bet I got your attention, but I've lived in Redfern most of my life (I'm twelve) and it is truly a great place to live, yet time and time again the media portrays it as the scapegoat for all of Sydney's social problems and evils. Scarily the public chose to believe this and this troubles me deeply because if people are so easily misled without really checking the facts what position does that leave those about who these stories are affect? What are the real problems? Why have they come about?

Well I've grown up with Aboriginal neighbours, enjoyed great street parties, known shopkeepers who've given me a free falafel and humus since a could first eat, had my best friend live around the corner... does it sound so different from other children's experiences? Maybe the only difference could be that I'm growing up in a really diverse and multicultural community that should really be a common experience for most children but it's not. So far this has been something to celebrate not fear.

Another difference is that we have an aboriginal community of whom some are so displaced and ruined by the government that can't say 'Sorry' and who do commit drug related crimes. The thing is would there be this horror and lack of compassion if it were another group. It's really easy to fear something you don't know.

As I've got older I wonder if the lack of care our government shows towards indigenous people, refugees and minority groups is influencing the general public's opinion. Are Australians becoming heartless people who believe the spin doctoring of the media and a government that has an international reputation of intolerance? They must be because they are elected by the people. What about the media? I know just by their reporting of Redfern they distort and misrepresent facts to create a good story. Yet as kids we are told not to lie, do the right thing, respect the rules... but we're not dumb, we read, we see, we live, we discus and we make our own opinions.

So, what's my point? Maybe we kids, with our opinions and experiences could help adults see the truth. We are meant to be risk takers in our learning, why don't adults do the same? Most people who fear Redfern should hop over and experience the way I do or look for truth outside the media or the government. The 'truth is out there' if all Australians could have the courage to embrace this I have the chance to grow up in a balanced and balanced society. I know many of my friends feel the same and the frustration I feel about Redfern is just a reflection of the bigger problem.

Sam Darcy
Sydney Boys High School
Year 7/8 Boy

What matters is knowing what doesn't matter

What matters to me is realising that it is important in life to know what doesn't matter and to have discovered what does matter.

For example, if your rugby team suffers a loss on the weekend it does not matter. If may affect your team's rank on the competition ladder but it will not affect the world as a whole.

If you stub your toe while walking up the stairs it does not matter. You might get a bruise on you toe but this event will not bruise the world as a whole.

If you accidentally wear your school uniform on a mufti day and all your friends laugh at you it doesn't matter. You might get embarrassed and go a deep shade of red but the world will not go red with you.

So what does matter?

To me what matters is that I realise that I am fortunate in this world. The knowledge that 35,615 people died of starvation on September 11th 2001 and that every 2.5 seconds someone dies of starvation puts into perspective what really does matter. It matters that a staggering proportion of deaths due to starvation occur among children below the age of five.

Furthermore, over 800 million citizens of the world are malnourished. Without adequate food supplies and the necessary vitamins and minerals to thrive, these human beings are being neglected. It really matters where you are lucky enough to be born to even receive enough to eat and drink.

Knowing that every two and a half minutes a species becomes extinct really matters. It matters because, at this rate, we are endangering our own species, homosapiens and the species we should be protecting. It matters that the planet is endangered due to this lack of diversity. It matters that we do not seem to have real solutions to this problem.

There are 6.4 billion people living on Earth. Less than one billion of these live in the "developed" countries. The 5 billion people living in the developing world do not have access to the things we, in the developed countries, take for granted.

It matters that we live in a world that is unfair. The USA, the richest nation in the world, has inequity problems of its own.

"The 13,000 richest families in the USA now have almost as much income as the 20 million poorest" (Social Worker, Aug 1st 2005).

What is more alarming is what this means on a world scale. There are extremes of rich and poor within the USA but the comparison to developing nations shows what, we should all agree, really matters. "The 400 richest US citizens have a combined income of $69 billion, which is more than the total income of the 166 million people living in the four African countries of Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda and Botswana" (New York Times, July 9 2003).

In the end what really matters is that we realise and appreciate that we have the opportunity to write about what matters to us, the opportunity to get a great education, the opportunity to eat fresh food and drink clean water ad above all, the opportunity to live.

Janecke Andersen
Loreto Kirribilli
Year 7/8 Girl

Rights for Disabled People

What really matters in society today?

For many young people it might be getting home to watch Home and Away or the OC. For the other older people in society it might be world peace or human rights, but for me the thing that truly matters is rights for disabled people.

As a person coming from a family with a member who is disabled, rights for disabled people matter to me. Disabled people do not get treated with equality. Disabled people do not get the same amount of opportunities as able bodied people and disabled people do not get noticed in society.

The inequality in the treatment of disabled people is a real concern in today's society. These people sometimes receive a very low pension and some don't get any pension at all. This is a worry as many disabled people cannot or do not work and this low income is barely enough to live on. It is difficult for physically disabled people to work as it takes a long time for them to get themselves ready in the morning. For example it could take up to 2 hours for them to shower and go over the toilet while it takes an able bodied person probably about 10 minutes each morning.

Disabled people also get treated as if they are not only physically but intellectually disabled as well. The general public do not know how to treat them often ask their carers a question rather then a direct it to the disabled person. It is important to look a disabled person in the eye and direct a conversation to them. They need to feel part of the community.

Getting the right job can be a trying and hard experience as many work places are not wheelchair accessible and many employers do not even consider employing a disabled person because they often equate an obvious physical disability with an inability to do the job. The employer might also feel that there might be greater Occupational Health and Safety implications.

Stairs present one of the biggest problems for disabled people. So many restaurants, hotels, cinemas, houses, buses, workplaces etc have them that it is virtually impossible to get anywhere in Sydney without encountering a step of flight of stairs. As a disabled person this is a restriction of their independence and makes travelling anywhere a very difficult and challenging task.

Car spaces are reserved for the disabled people but rarely are there more than 2 or 3 car spaces in the same spot which is an inadequate amount. It is extremely inconsiderate for able bodied persons to park in a designated disabled car spot. Yet, this often happens, much to the inconvenience of those who really need them as they cannot access public transport easily. The NSW Government is moving very slowly in upgrading the Sydney train system.

What can we do about this ongoing problem of inequality? We as a society need to raise the public's awareness and view of disabled people. This means treating them like any other human being.

Imagine everyday it took you 2 hours to get out the front door. And when you finally did you found that people just stared at you or ignored you. We need to put ourselves in their position and think about how we treat them. Everyday is a challenge for disabled people. We must make their challenge less difficult and treat them as we would treat any other person or friend.

William Overs
Barellan Central School
Year 9/10 Boy
Joint Overall Winner

Drought in Regional Australia

What matters to me living on a farm in regional Australia is the drought. I live in NSW on a farm north of Barellan where as I write my mother is hand feeding sheep. We have been in a drought for 5 years. Bering without a decent rain for such an amount of time is mentally and physically draining for my whole family.

Hand feeding sheep is labour intensive and everyday chore and keeps farmers from getting a job off the farm to help pay the bills. Hand feeding sheep involves filling the trailer, driving around the sheep and feeding the starving animals. This is a very time consuming event, and takes a lot of patience. We have to do this to keep our 'breeders' (sheep that you breed lambs from) alive to rear the lambs and try to fatten the lambs to sell.

Community businesses also struggle through droughts due to the domino effect. Farmers have no money and therefore have no money to spend in local businesses. Even larger centres such as Griffith and Leeton are feeling the effect of the drought throughout the shops in towns. Fuel prices which continue to go up don't help the farmers either. My parents continue to complain about the prices and how it costs so much to go to town nowadays.

A business person in Griffith Elio Dalbroi said in the 35 years he has owned his service station he has not seen it as quiet as it is in the present time. Because the businesses are becoming quieter, there are limited jobs for young people. The risks of this is that with no jobs in the country young people will leave for the city and won't return. This has a detrimental effect on the population of the small country towns. Sporting clubs will fold, pubs and clubs struggle for patronage, school numbers will decrease and ultimately the towns become ghost towns.

This is very hard for me to swallow because ever since I have been going to school I have wanted to be a farmer. I am in Year 10 now and making decisions about what I want to do with my life. It seems that everyday it is becoming harder for me to become a farmer. I will leave at the end of this year and probably get an apprenticeship so I have something behind me. But I will become a farmer; my dad assures me that 'it can't be dry for ever.' At the end of the day the farm is where I belong. In regional Australia. I like it here and can't see myself leaving.

Rebecca Cigna
Willoughby Girls High School
Year 9/10 Girl

Warfare and Ice-cream

If I turned to you and declared that you were bankrupt, how would you react? Would you sell off new-age novelty appliances, before reconsidering the location and size of you house? Would you end up with just the bare necessities of life? If so, be aware there is a silver lining. You would still be on cloud nine in the eyes of those less fortunate who face everyday with the cold, hard truth of a harsher, more miserable reality.

'Half the world, nearly three billion people, lives on less than two dollars a day'. Anup Shah

Inequality between nations and peoples is increasing, while global efforts to reduce the gap are becoming progressively frivolous. Why is the dramatic disparity between the wealthy and the poor widening? And, even at the age of fifteen, I am genuinely curious as to how people can be so oblivious to the world, especially those around them. Why does nobody take genuine action? How is it possible for our world to have so much money, so much 'intelligence' and so much control over futures, yet have such little regard for those who can't afford to keep up with the developed nations?

'Nearly 1 billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names." Anup Shah

You would think that this impediment to the happiness of human kind would arise some consideration from the government. If you were a politician, what do you imagine poses a threat to the world and what takes higher priority financially? Would it be the welfare of the people living in the world? The cost supplying cigarettes to Europe, maybe, or military spending around the globe?

Personally, I think that the welfare of mankind would have has at least some importance. Unfortunately, I am unbelievably wrong! In 1998, the cost of military spending and supplying narcotic drugs around the world amounted to more than US $900 billion. This is astonishing when the statistics sits in a list that shows incredible disregard towards basic health and nutrition for everyone in the world - only US $13 billion. How is that for suffering? I suppose most of is should thank our lucky stars that this sum of money at least totals more than that spent on ice cream in Europe (US $11 billion), only barley though.

'One billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the world). 640 million live with inadequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water, and 270 million have no access to health services. 10.6 million have died in 2003 before they reached the age of five.' The Institute for Policy Studies

Sit, think and consider that in the year 2000, it would have only taken 1% of the worlds' overall spending on weapons, to place every child on the globe into school. This was clearly a sacrifice the world was not willing to make.

What I find ironic is how our governments today are willing to spend ridiculously large sums of money on weapons to destroy our lives, when such a small proportion of that could be utilised to save millions. And so I beg of you this: as you fall asleep in you clean, snug bed tonight, ask yourself the questions, 'What is being sacrificed? What should be sacrificed?' and in time, let's hope it's a lot more.

Chris Summers
Killara High School
Year 11/12 Boy
Joint Overall Winner

Higher education: An investment devalued

In 1974, the Whitlam Labor Government abolished all fees for university tuition, strengthening the international perception that Australia's higher education system was one of the most diverse and enviable in the world. Our universities were a source of free-flowing knowledge, of information and inspiration, available for every Australian citizen. Now, in 2005, we are confronted with the consumerist reality that universities are operating not as educational institutions, but as businesses. A two-tiered system is in place, students are struggling to make ends meet, and a series of reforms by Federal Education Minister Dr. Brendan Nelson will soon see universities unable to provide essential services. It is apparent, more than ever, that the higher education system of today is a bleak place.

Amendments were made to the system in 2004, with Dr. Nelson claiming they were "extremely important in the economic and social development of Australia." The reforms permitted universities to increase course costs by 25% for HECS paying students while setting aside 35% of enrolments for students who could afford to pay their fees upfront. This has effectively created a system that protects students from wealthier backgrounds: if they do not receive a high enough UAI, they can pay their way through university. At the same time, however, it penalises the socioeconomically disadvantaged, discouraging their attendance at university. Economic development? Definitely - profit is the bottom line, after all. But it would be a feat of political mastery to justify these amendments as being "extremely important" to Australia's social development.

If you were to qualify for a HECS position in today's system - against the odds - you would still need to survive. Amy Lawson's Sydney Morning Herald article (15 May 2005) revealed that "60% of uni students live below the poverty line." The 2005 Global Higher Education Rankings, conducted by the Educational Policy Institute (EPI), also found that Australia was the third most expensive nation in the developed world for university living costs. Straight from the pressures of the HSC, students are forced to take part-time jobs and sacrifice study time for the sake of survival; almost $10,000 a year (not including HECS related debt, entertainment, petrol etc.). Higher education, in the Federal Government's eyes, is a privilege for those able to attain it. It is no longer a promise.

But the Federal Government is determined to give students some relief in the form of Voluntary Student Unions. This would make it optional for students enrolled at university to join the student union, thereby, superficially, saving them money. However, Dr. Nelson, without the backing of any organisation or universities, has neglected to mention that this would eventuate in the termination of many on-campus health, sporting and childcare services. The Federal Government believes that students should not subsidise the costs of facilities they do not use, but fails to acknowledge that like the Australian taxation system, this is the only way to keep such services and infrastructure available for all.

It is a sad truth that Australia's higher education system no longer resembles what it used; the Australian ideal of egalitarianism. The Federal Government has made obtaining a university degree a financial and social struggle, and in doing so, eradicated every last trace of fairness, equality and opportunity that it used to represent. The irony? Two of the last three Federal Education Ministers - Amanda Vanstone and Dr. Nelson - did not contribute a cent to their university education courtesy of Whitlam's 1974 reforms. Hopefully in the future, we will have an Education Minister humble enough to look back before looking forward.

Emily Fleming
Alstonville High School
Year 11/12 Girl

It's a free country, right?

Is it realistic to claim that... in a society shaped by technological reliance, fashion identity and capitalistic pressures... we live in a free country?

Motivated and driven by money, materialism and peer pressure, we all enter a race (at some stage). We run, and run and run - against time. We live strive for the ultimate - for what we do not know - for the 'better life'. We sweat; we stress. Tempted to forfeit. But we can't because we're crowd-encompassed. We become prisoners, slaves and victims of society's rules. Then all we want is freedom...

While Australia may be able to claim 'free of speech', society certainly cannot boast unlimited freedom. Motivational speaker, Wayne Dyer asserted...

"Freedom means that you are unobstructed in living your life as you choose. Anything less is a form of slavery."

Sure - we choose where we live, our career, and our interests. But too often our individual beliefs and values reflect society's ideological influences and trends instead of our own. Fear inhibits individual freedom.

So, how far have we really come since the abolition of slavery in the nineteenth century? Was freedom ever truly actualised? Certainly not! At present, within the 'free' country of Australia, people are toiling in slavery. Everyone is a slave to materialism, money and fashion. However, some are even physically enslaved. And Australia is in serious need of enlightenment...

Every year 1000 foreign women are trafficked into prostitution in our country. Expecting employment as waitresses or old age carers, the girls are deceived and abused. Bought and sold regularly, their individuality and worth diminish. Slavery is not an ancient practice. It is thriving in our midst.

Yet it's a free country, right?

Recently, media attention has focused on issues relating to detainees in detention centres. Articles in the Sydney Morning Herald on the 24th of May highlighted the case of Virginia and Naomi Leong who were "freed from a life of detention." Virginia Leong was "detained by immigration authorities in 2001 when she tried to leave Australia on a false passport," so her three-year-old daughter has spent her life in detention. An innocent child in detention in a free country?

It is absolutely impossible to claim that Australia is immune to the effects of all branched of slavery. Whether ideologically, socially or even physically, all citizens yearn for untrammelled freedom.

As we walk down the main street we feel out of place without a mobile suctioned to our ear, the latest pair of jeans suffocating our skin and a credit card securing identity. We feel estranged because individuality is feared. Freedom to be an individual is not understood. And, for as long as stereotypical symbols of individual success and worth are portrayed through the media, people will always be dictated to by social and economic pressures.

Australia will never be a totally free country unless individuals decide to value their own rights to freedom and to stand against all aspects of slavery.

Only when we see the importance of freedom - that FREEDOM MATTERS - will we, as Australians, be able to boast that we live in a 'free country'.

Essays end

These winning authors received $250 each as well as $250 for their school. They also received certificates signed by Gough Whitlam and the What Matters? Patron Hugh Mackay. Their prizes were awarded by Hugh Mackay at a reception at the Pavilion, Darling Park on Wednesday 31st August 2005.

Last year's winners and their opinion articles are published on this website - read here.