Before taking on the role of Speaker, Tony Smith was chair of the ongoing parliamentary inquiry into electoral education.
The inquiry, which started in June this year, seeks to address the barriers some schools face in reaching Canberra such as cost and distance. It also assess the effectiveness of how democracy is taught.
Mr Smith said changes in how and when electoral education was taught could prevent later disillusionment in politics.
"A lot of the electoral education happens in primary school. And when you're in secondary school, your chances of learning about this again, right at the point of time you're about to enrol to vote, is governed by whether you study humanities,” he said.
“And, personally, I've always thought that's a gap that needs to be addressed.
“More education is more sunshine on our democracy and how it works.”
What does Australia’s electoral education look like?
Most people would have visited Parliament House when they were in primary school, taking part in parliamentary role-plays, visiting Old Parliament and the national War Memorial.
The building sees around half a million people each year. Last year it saw 677,932 people walk through its doors, of them 123,507 were schoolchildren.
The visits aren’t a compulsory part of the national curriculum, but the Parliamentary Education Office does provide resources for teachers to conduct similar role-plays in classrooms.
Still, some schools make long journeys to visit the nation’s capital.
Surat State School is one of them, located nearly 500 kilometres west of Brisbane.
Katrina, a Year 10 student from Surat, nearly missed out on the trip.
“At first myself and my brother weren’t coming, because we didn’t have the money, but the people at our youth group paid for us to come,” she said.
The government offers a subsidy for all schools located at least 150 kilometres from Canberra.
But to qualify, schools have to visit Parliament House, the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House and the Australian War Memorial.
For Katrina, the opportunity to visit parliament was an important one.
"I was kind of excited to see where all the important decisions are made for our nation,” she said. “It was interesting realising I was actually standing here in front of Parliament House. It's kind of empowering.”
Disengaged or disempowered?
Holding a political conference in the same building a few days later were 50 members of the Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS).
The group, which is made up of Jewish university students, met with and debated members of Parliament on issues important to them such as the Australia-Israel relationship, the welfare of students and mental health.
“It was interesting realising I was actually standing here in front of Parliament House. It's kind of empowering.”
The group identified as politically active but its members had questions about the way public debate was carried out, and the effect that had on young voters.
Speaking to the federal member for Melbourne Ports, Michael Danby, one student asked:
“What purpose does it serve to conduct the public debate in such a manner, like just now in question time, with just shouting back and forth?"
His question touched on research conducted by the Museum of Democracy over the past two years, which looked at Australians’ engagement with democracy.
Director of the Museum, Daryl Karp, said the findings didn’t reinforce the idea that young people were apathetic when it came to politics, but that they did feel disempowered within the system.
"There's a real sense of powerlessness. So I think when they see activities happening in Parliament that they don't think are reflective of what they voted for, of what the government stands for, I think it just reinforces a sense of cynicism,” she said.
She said this has seen them turn to “different ways” of being heard, often through online petitions and social media campaigns.
Political affairs director for AUJS, Julian Kowal, said their position as a minority group meant they were constantly finding new ways to speak up.
“Whether it's through this political conference in Canberra, whether it's through speakers on campus, whether it's through retreats, whether it's through giving them an opportunity to work on a campaign,” he said.
“We're always trying to find ways to increase political engagement amongst Jewish students.”
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