‘Future citizens’ challenged in Indigenous voice to parliament debate

Taking a leaf from its Jesuit tradition, one Sydney school has decided its students should hear both sides of the debate consuming the nation.

Warren Mundine and Frank Brennan flanked by St Aloysius College’s Oliver Grant, left, and Matthew Ham. Picture: John Feder

Taking a leaf from its Jesuit tradition, one Sydney school has decided its students should hear both sides of the debate consuming the nation.

Prominent No campaigner Warren Mundine on Wednesday joined Frank Brennan, a proponent of the voice to parliament, in a discussion in front of 1000 staff and students of St Aloysius College on Sydney’s lower north shore.

The pair returned to the college in the evening to moot the cases for and against the proposed constitutional amendment for parents, alumni, and the broader community.

Principal Mark Tannock said it was important for students – even though the vast majority would not be voting in the referendum – to develop an understanding of the conversation.

“We wanted the boys to hear different perspectives of the referendum proposal,” he said.

“They’ll be inheritors of the decision that’s made in the referendum. They’ll be the future citizens of Australia who either need to work with a constitutional voice to parliament, or indeed, will have to work with the fallout from the failure for that to be ­established.

“In addition to that, we made it clear to them that whilst they may not have agency in this decision, they will have agency in other important decisions in the future of Australia as voters.”

Mr Tannock said free speech and discussion was consistent with the school’s Jesuit tradition.

“We don’t tell the boys – we don’t teach them what to think,” he said.

“Instead, we endeavour to give them the skills of how to think and how to think well. We ultimately think it’s up to the individual using those skills and their character and their intellectual gifts to determine what is right and what is true and what is just.”

Mr Mundine said the students were receptive and “asked a lot of good questions”.

“The curliest question I got? It was, well, what happens after? And – of course – then I went through how we should be all pulling together as a nation whatever the result is.”

Father Brennan said he approached the conversation with the aim of telling students “these are the issues which are being ­debated in your society at the ­moment”.

“We don’t know what the shape of this sort of debate will be when you are adults ... but because you are here to get a good education, you are in a good position to be able to assess the various arguments that you’re hearing,” he said.

“And we would hope that you would do better than some of your adults that you know well in being able to give a respectful listening to all viewpoints and then make an informed decision.”

College captain Matthew Ham – who said he would be eligible to vote in the referendum – said it was “fantastic … to be able to hear such a reverent conversation”.

“The fact that both of them presented really strong arguments – to anyone who was quite neutral, it makes the choice even more difficult,” he said.