Cessnock High School’s Bee-Jay Coulthart is certainly putting paid to the old adage “children should be seen and not heard”.
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The Year 10 student joined 92 students from across the state late last month for a trip to Sydney to “run” State Parliament.
The Children’s Week Parliament gave the students from Years 7-10 an opportunity to prepare a one-and-a-half minute speech on a topic they are passionate about that effects children.
They were tasked to prepare a speech on the broad topics of Safe, Connect, Respect, Opportunity, Wellbeing and Voice – the six themes of the NSW Strategic Plan for Young People.
“I spoke about young people having the chance to use their voice more,” Bee-Jay said.
“Young people don’t get heard as much as they should. Young people have a lot of good ideas – they might not bring them in to play as such, but if they get heard by adults then they will be able to bring the ideas into play.”
While Bee-Jay described speaking in the Legislative Assembly chamber as “nerve wracking” he was quick to add it was an experience that would live long in the memory.
“One of the highlights was actually getting shown around Parliament House and the best one was getting the chance to speak.”
Bee-Jay’s speech was filmed and has since been sent to Member for Cessnock Clayton Barr.
As part of the event, organised by The Office of the Advocate for Children and Young People (ACYP) and the YMCA, the students also met with members of Parliament who gave rare insights into the political process and what it meant to be an elected representative.
Before their big moment, students met with staff from the YMCA and the ACYP who talked them through their speeches, making final adjustments.
As testament to Bee-Jay’s prodigious writing ability, his was one of the only speeches that did not need any editing.
Young people don’t get heard as much as they should. Young people have a lot of good ideas
- Bee-Jay Coulthart
While the student said he was unsure if he saw himself as a politician when he leaves school, he added that the experience had given him a new-found respect for the job.
“It’s not the career path I was going to pursue as I want to go into the Defence Force, but it opened my eyes to see what they actually do and how hard their jobs actually are,” he said.
