Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to pay tribute to a young Queenslander who I met recently, who is finishing grade 12 and who has just turned 18. Now, I would like to be able to state the young Queenslander's name. I would like to state the school which the young Queenslander attends, but I'm not going to do so, because I don't want to cause issues or problems for that young Queenslander. Let me tell you why. This young Queenslander attends a high school—a very well-known high school in my home state of Queensland—and recently with fellow year 12 students at his high school attended a seminar put on by the high school. The seminar was for all year 12 students of voting age, who will have the opportunity to vote in the forthcoming referendum.

I can remember that I spoke in my first speech in this place about some of the teachers who had a material impact on the development of my critical thinking capacities: my history teacher, Bruce Prasser; an English teacher, Ted Ryan; and other teachers. But in all those cases in my experience at my high school, never—not a single time—did a teacher seek to impose their views with respect to any matter regarding political beliefs or other matters which belong in the personal domain. On no occasion did any of those teachers seek to impose their views on me as a student. What they sought to do was to teach me critical thinking and provide motivation, encouragement and intellectual stimulation so I would go away, inquire into matters and form my own view. That's what they sought to do.

The experience of this year 12 student who I spoke to recently was very different in the context of this referendum. Along with other students of voting age, he attended a seminar, provided by their high school, which was essentially a seminar as to why they should vote yes in the forthcoming referendum. They weren't given the alternative viewpoint. They were given one viewpoint and one message. For the first time, this young Queenslander is going to vote, and his high school, of all places—his place of education—called him into a seminar and then sought to pressure him into voting yes in the forthcoming referendum. They didn't say to this year 12 student, 'For the first time in your life, you're going to have the opportunity to exercise your democratic right, as someone who's just turned 18 in this country, and in the course of exercising that democratic right you should appreciate that there will be good people on both sides of the debate, with differing points of view and differing perspectives, and that should be celebrated.' No, that wasn't the message. They didn't say to that young Queenslander who I met, 'Because you have a right to vote, you have a concomitant obligation to inquire into the relevant questions and to do some research and consider and weigh the arguments both for and against voting yes in the referendum.' No, they didn't do that. They didn't say to this young Queenslander, 'In the course of considering and debating issues such as those which are coming before the referendum, the exercise of that process in itself means that, even if you're not convinced by those on the other side of the debate, you obtain a deeper understanding with respect to your own arguments.' They didn't say that to this young year 12 student in my home state of Queensland. What they did was drag him and his fellow students into a seminar and dictate to him how he should vote. It is absolutely disgraceful that our educational institutions should be doing this to first-time voters.

When I heard this story I was somewhat concerned. What would be the impact of this? Let me tell you what the impact was, Mr Acting Deputy President McGrath. As a Queenslander, you will smile wryly when I tell you this. In the great anti-authoritarian Queensland tradition, the fact these young students were dragged into a seminar and told they should vote yes in the constitutional referendum has had entirely the opposite impact. He's going to vote no, having considered the issues, and the vast majority of his fellow students are going to vote no, because they don't like to be dictated to as to how they should exercise their democratic vote. It was totally counterproductive on the part of that education institution, and we are seeing this across the community.

I had another report of a high-performing university student studying law, my own profession. The class were asked to put assignments in with respect to the forthcoming constitutional referendum. This university student chose what I think all of us would admit to be, in the context of a university education, the more courageous decision, which was to write an essay from a legal point of view putting the 'no' arguments. When they got their assignment back, there was a comment put on that assignment which stated in no uncertain terms that the assessor of that assignment brought their own prejudice to bear in assessing the quality of the university assignment, and this high-performing student was given a bare pass. This was in, of all things, my profession, the legal profession, where we have an absolute tradition of ensuring that every single person who needs legal representation is represented, no matter how unpopular the cause. We have a tradition of mobilising the best arguments in order to support a view, a perspective, yet at a university a future lawyer is given this awful message that you have to give the conformist view, the view that conforms with the views of your teachers and lecturers and the institution—the institutional view must prevail. It's an awful message.

So I say to Queenslanders: if you have an example of this over the next six weeks, I want to hear about it, and I'm sure my good friend Senator James McGrath wants to hear about it too. We will call it out in this place because it is grossly inappropriate that young people getting their education should be subject to this indoctrination and fed this propaganda. Our high schools and universities should be teaching young people how to think, not what to think. That should apply in the context of this referendum and in every other context.