Year 11’s Olivia attends the NSW Schools Constitutional Convention

Last Tuesday, I had the privilege of attending the NSW Schools Constitutional Convention held at the NSW Parliament House. Almost 100 students from across the state attended the convention, the theme this year being ‘limits on freedom of political expression’. We were welcomed to the convention by The Hon. Ben Franklin MLC (Member of the Legislative Council), President of the NSW Legislative Council, which was followed by a keynote address by Professor Emerita of the University of Sydney. She spoke about the fine line between governmental control of expression and restricting misinformation and hate speech, and highlighting its particular relevance to society currently. She emphasised the need of free speech in a democracy, and the technicalities of the implied freedom of political expression stipulated by the constitution. Following this, we were divided into groups where a facilitator posed us questions on subjects such as the role of law enforcement and government powers in protests, and the need for caps on political expenditure during campaign periods. It was an incredibly thought-provoking day, and an invaluable opportunity to participate in engaging conversation with like-minded students from all over the state.  

– Olivia Zein (Year 11)