18 April 2008

Submission to the Australia 2020 Summit. April 2008. By Mrs Kerry Jones Executive Director 

The Constitution Education Fund Australia (CEFA) welcomes the opportunity to submit to the 2020 Summit, Topic 9, Governance. CEFA is a non-partisan and non-profit organization dedicated to practical civics education programs, projects, partnerships and awards that develop the knowledge, skills and capacities of young Australians. CEFA engages young Australians in learning activities that develop informed, responsible and active citizens. Structured civics experiences are stimulating, exciting, practical and interesting to engage young Australians in the history and operation of the Australian democracy.  CEFA is supported by academics, business leaders, foundations, High Court Judges, teachers, families and community leaders and volunteers.

The Australian system of government will be improved through a more engaged and informed community. Evaluations and reports show around eighty per cent of the community disengaged with governance. Young people show the lowest levels of interest. 

The CEFA website www.cefa.org.au  details CEFA’s work. Case studies, evaluations, annual reports and all aspects of CEFA’s strict internal governance and evaluation procedures under the eminent Board of Trustees are also online.

The CEFA Parliamentary Clubs (PCs) are a major civics project being implemented across Australia by CEFA in 2007/2008. They create a democratic model within schools that can rival sporting and rock eisteddfod programs for student interest. Adapted for both primary and secondary schools, PCs can be a whole-of-school, cross-curricular, microcosmic political system. The students take on the roles of parliamentarians, advisers, parliamentary officers, committee members, journalists and cartoonists. Through forming political parties students conduct elections, produce school newspapers, debate issues relevant to them and their communities, and take on responsible duties.

CEFA’s Governor-General's Undergraduate Essay Competition engages undergraduate students from all Universities in Australia in annual essay writing on topics relevant to modern government and civics issues. In addition CEFA partners State Education Departments for public speaking. Thousands of young debaters and orators discuss civics and citizenship topics engaging in new areas of thought. CEFA supports targeted individual civics projects. The 2006/7 First Voter project offered an online history and citizenship quiz in Queensland in partnership with the Australian Electoral Commission.  The 2006 cluster schools project saw Aboriginal children from the Yirarra College, Northern Territory, flying to Canberra and participating in two days of active democracy with Canberra democracy institutions. CEFA also acts as a linking resource and is always working to partner with other Australian education bodies to provide resource materials in the area of civics. 

CEFA submits to the 2020 summit that the effective way forward for civics education in Australia is an overall coherent approach and urges the Federal Government to offer the leadership for this to occur. It is extremely inefficient to fund diverse and separate programs and projects with no umbrella body for evaluation and implementation cohesion. CEFA recommends a Private-Public Partnership Body should be established to move civics education forward in support of the future of good Australian Governance and to build an informed, active and responsible citizenship.