Queensland’s creative young consumers were awarded more than $15,000 in prizes at Parliament House as the winners of the Office of Fair Trading’s (OFT) Buy Smart Competition for school-age students.
Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath said the array of high-quality entries received showcased the students’ excellent consumer knowledge as well as their artistic and technical skills.
"The Buy Smart Competition challenges students in Years 4 to 12 to choose a consumer issue, research it, then present it as an interesting creative project that can educate their chosen audience," she said.
"It was great to see schools throughout Queensland participating in the competition this year, including in regional and remote areas of Bullyard, Blackwater and Gayndah.
"The students all showcased an impressive knowledge of consumer issues, including refund rights, scams, online shopping and product labelling.
"Young people are being brought up in a digital age and are exposed to social media, online advertising and app store purchases earlier than ever before, so I’m pleased to know many of our young consumers are learning to identify consumer-related risks."
Mrs D’Ath said more than 6000 students participated in Buy Smart school presentations this year and the Office of Fair Trading received entries from more than 750 students.
"I know there was a lot of great work done and the huge variety of well-researched projects made it very tough for the judges to choose the winners," she said.
"I congratulate all the winners and students who received highly commended awards."
The competition has been running since 2012 and awards students as individuals or in groups, as well as the school or community group they attend, in the categories of Years 4 to 6, 7 to 9 and 10 to 12.
A $1500 school champion category was introduced into the Buy Smart Competition last year for the Commissioner for Fair Trading to choose one school that has shown great commitment to consumer awareness through the Buy Smart Competition.
The Buy Smart Competition 2018 prize winners are:
Category Years 4–6
1st
Mckenzie Kirkham - St Paul’s Lutheran Primary School (Caboolture)
2nd
Matthew Mynett and Soren Zschech - Kurwongbah State School (Petrie)
3rd
Skye Hetaraka and McKenzie Sanker - Boondall State School (Boondall)
Highly Commended
Ella Macuga and Lucy Stone - Nundah State School (Nundah)
Amelia Gray and Emma Heijboer - Kurwongbah State School (Petrie) Nicholas Bray, Alex Wong, Jonathon Culley and Mitchell Burchard - Faith Lutheran College (Victoria Point)
Category Years 7–9
1st
Emily Baxter and Sarah Fenner - Loreto College (Coorparoo)
2nd
Hannah Viney and Lani Raghavan - Wavell State High School (Wavell Heights)
3rd
Zion Cordero, Sebastian Hurcum and Mack Geiger - Trinity College (Gladstone)
Highly Commended
Madelize Breet and Alison Wu - Sheldon College (Sheldon)
Lily Ji and Tiana Tong - St Aidan’s Anglican Girls School (Corinda)
Caitlin Turner - Clayfield College (Clayfield)
Amelia Wakefield - Redlands College (Wellington Point)
Drishti - Toolooa State High School (Gladstone Central)
Angela Greer - James Nash State High School (Gympie)
Category Years 10–12
1st
Paris Teevan, Taya Kesby and Eloise O'Donnell - St Aidan’s Anglican Girls School (Corinda)
2nd
Elisa Tamai, Gabrielle Christou, and Rose Ringelstein - St Aidan’s Anglican Girls School (Corinda)
3rd
Khushi Kadia and Jasmine Kaur - Aspley State High School (Aspley)
Highly Commended
Kyle Montgomery - Wavell State High School (Wavell Heights)
Commissioner’s School Champion
Bullyard State School (Bullyard)
Details of this year’s winning Buy Smart Competition entries are available on the OFT website at www.qld.gov.au/buysmartcomp.
