Mount Compass Area School students went on an ‘Amazing Race’ in State Parliament on Thursday 30 January with Finniss MP David Basham.

He led nineteen Year 12 students through a Voting and Speaking exercise at  Parliament House, as part of the school’s Amazing Race event.

The students were split into small groups and started in the Old Parliament House Chamber Room where they were taken through a preferential voting and counting exercise. 

From here, they elected a representative MP and each group collaborated on a speech. 

Mr Basham spoke to each group, providing guidance and advice along the way.

The students then moved to the Parliament’s House of Assembly, where the representative MP stood up and used the speech notes to speak on a subject for at least 90 seconds.

Mr Basham says each group was keen to move through the exercises and speech quickly, in order to move on to the next challenge in their Amazing Race event.

This led to fast talking, fun, laughs and discovering the necessity of team support to encourage speakers to remain calm and focussed on delivering their speeches in the given time, before the MP released them to move on.

“The students were really engaged and committed to the challenge. The experience provided the students with a better understanding of our political history and systems.

“As future voters I am excited to see students understand how representative government works.”