Jacinta Allan visits Year 8 students for Veritas

As part of their Term 1 Veritas unit, ‘A Just Society’, Year 8 students have been learning about politics in Australia. On Friday 17 March, they were privileged to hear from our local State Member of Parliament – the Honourable Jacinta Allan, Member for Bendigo East. Minister Allan is a former student of our College, and students commented that made the visit extra special. They learnt more about State politics and heard about some of her experiences as the longest serving female Minister in Australia’s history and Victoria’s longest serving Labor Minister.

Students had prepared some excellent questions and Minister Allan generously stayed to answer them, covering a wide range of topics at local, state and federal levels of government – and even some international political questions!

Thank you to Minister Allan for giving her time so generously to our Year 8 students and also to Year 8 Student Representative Council members Lauchlan and Sadie for leading the Acknowledgement of Country and introducing our guest speaker.

Ms Sarah Gross, English and Humanities Learning Leader & Ms Jocelyn Leversha, Veritas Teacher

Students from 8B1 shared some thoughts on the visit during their afternoon Veritas class:

“On Friday 17 March 2023, Jacinta Allan, MP for Bendigo East, came to Catherine McAuley College to do a speech in front of all of the Year 8 Veritas classes. She is a former student at Catherine McAuley College (CMC), but at the time she was attending school it was named Catholic College Bendigo (CCB). She talked about her life, how she got a job in Parliament and how hard being in parliament is. It was interesting to hear that she was rejected from her first job as a journalist, but then got into parliament. Year 8 students learnt a good amount about Parliament, and it was a very informative talk.” (James)

“I learnt a lot about being in parliament. Minister Allan told us about how hard it can be as a member of parliament, and why you should never give up in life, even if you’re rejected at first.”

“It was cool to hear that she has been a member of parliament for nearly twenty-four years now.” (James)

Xavier from 8B1 said “She explained to us the way Parliament runs, the three levels of government in Australia and what party she belongs to. She is part of the Labor party; her family all passionately supported the Labor party, and she has all her life.

“Jacinta Allan, Deputy Premier of Victoria, came to talk to all the Year 8 Veritas classes to help us understand democracy, which we have been studying. We found out that she was a past student at CMC. Her application was declined for her first-choice job, which was as a cadet journalist. She went on to talk about how she signed up for the Labor Party and got elected in 1999. It was comforting to know that you don’t have to know what you want to do as a career. We also asked lots of questions. We thank Minister Allan for her time.” (Maddi & Emily)