When their teacher posed the question “is Australia’s democracy broken?”, the politics students at Mandurah Baptist College asked around to get answers from a number of experts in the topic.
“A whole lot of the class got talking to Andrew Hastie,” year 10 student Michael Gray said.
Michael and his classmate asked Canning MP Andrew Hastie to attend their school to answer their questions, and on Thursday he paid the year 10, 11 and 12 classes a visit.
“Their economics and politics class wanted to have a chat with their local member, and I love talking to local people, especially young people,” Mr Hastie said.
“I’m really concerned actually that young people stay engaged with politics.”
Mr Hastie said the students were very engaged and critical.
“I think they have a healthy skepticism of centralised power, and I think they are concerned about the future,” he said.
“They asked some really searching questions about the state of our government’s finances, and my message to them was if my generation doesn’t turn it around, they’re the ones who are going to have to pay the debt down with higher taxes.
“I love reconnecting with people after time in Canberra, especially with kids. Their questions are so upfront, to-the-point.”
Many of the students said though democracy seemed to be the best system of government available, it did have many flaws.
“It is a two party system and it’s harder for smaller parties to get their voice out… parties like greens would never get enough power to become a main party,” year 12 student Deepali Rajawat said.
She said though Mr Hastie had a positive outlook on Australia, she disagreed with his opinions on military.
“We do need a military of course, but there’s not a specific need for us to expand it at the moment, it’s counterproductive to our economy, and what we need to improve, especially when we need our GDP boosted,” she said.
Year 11 student RP van der Westhuizen, on the other hand, thought Mr Hastie’s attitudes to military were appropriate.
“I do get how his view on the military is because of his background… but I also agree with it, because of what the global threat is, especially with leaders like Donald trump, and Russia, I feel like there is an increasing need for it,” he said.
RP said he thought the major flaw in democracy was that racial discrimination was embedded in the system.
Year 12 student Brendan Haosey asked after Mr Hastie’s opinion on Australia increasing global competitiveness, now the mining boom is over.
“He said it was important to keep connections with other countries, and globalisation as a positive, keeping communication up and trade agreements,” Brendan said.
Deepali said it was good for them as students to hear from people with different political views and a real-world perspective.
“It really challenges your own views, because especially in class you get one idea about things, like we learn that globalisation is good, trade is good… to hear other views, about where GDP should be put, it’s very different to hear someone else’s perspective and why they would make those decisions,” she said.