Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I rise to speak about the Commonwealth Bank's StartSmart Program. The StartSmart Program is delivered to students across primary, secondary and vocational education settings and aims to provide students with financial education. Students are taught how to manage their money and are given the necessary knowledge and skills to make wise financial decisions. StartSmart is the largest face-to-face financial literacy program of its kind in the world, which was delivered to more than 295,000 students last year alone. There are five sessions in the program, which is split into five areas: SmartEarning, SmartSaving, SmartInvesting, SmartSpending and SmartEnterprise.

Last Friday I was invited by principal Josie Crisara of Aitken College in my electorate to observe this SmartSpending lesson delivered to a year 9 class. The lesson was facilitated by Mr Jamie Robinson from the Commonwealth Bank. During the lesson I watched Jamie discuss with students the importance of distinguishing between needs and wants. He explained the concepts of budgeting and saving, and he directed the class to always engage in comparative shopping. StartSmart provides tools that could be used to manage spending, such as withdrawing only as much money as you have budgeted to spend in any particular day or week, waiting 24 hours before making a purchase, and using a smart phone app to track spending. Principal Josie Crisara told me that the program has been well received by students and parents. Upon completing the program, students said they felt better informed and had greater confidence in how to manage their finances. (Time expired)