What Matters to young Australians

The Whitlam Institute is offering young people an opportunity to share their views on what it will take to build a better society.

What Matters? is a writing competition inviting students in years 5-12 in NSW and the ACT to write a 400-600 word opinion piece on issues in society that are important to them.

Competition patron, Hugh Mackay, says listening to young Australians is like hearing a message from our future: 'They are being shaped by the world we have created for them, and they are already preparing to reshape it in their own way. When they tell us "what matters" we would do well to listen.'

This year's entries were judged by a prominent panel of writers, publishers and journalists:

Julie Hare - Editor-in Chief, APN Educational Media,
Adele Horin - Sydney Morning Herald journalist,
Professor Ivor Indyk - Whitlam Chair in The Writing and Society Research Group at UWS,
Mary-Ruth Mendel - Co-Founder, Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation,
Andrew West - Sydney Morning Herald journalist.

The overall competition winner, Erin Mangan of Henry Kendall High School, was unanimously selected by the judging panel for her heartfelt story on bullying called 'Save me a seat'. Read the winning entries.

On winning the 2007 competition Erin says 'since winning What Matters? I have developed a new-found confidence and attitude towards what I write. When I thought about what matters to me, I realised how much it should matter to everyone else. I wanted people to see the view from where I was standing'.

The 2008 competition will be launched during term one and close on Friday 4 April 2008. Entry forms will be available in February from our website www.whitlam.org