MELBOURNE HIGH STUDENT THOMAS POSA WINS INAUGURAL JOHN BUTTON SCHOOL PRIZE — 30.08.2011
Thomas Posa, a 15-year old student in Year 11 at Melbourne High School, has won the inaugural John Button School Prize. The winner was announced at the John Button Oration, which was held at BMW Edge as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival on Saturday 27 August.
Thomas, who will receive $2500 and a commemorative plaque, won the Prize for his essay, Australian Healthcare Policy and Reform since 2007. Melbourne High School also receives a plaque and $2000.
The judges commended the essay’s depth of research, sophisticated analysis, ability to marshal evidence and high-quality writing.
Honourable Mentions were awarded to Phoebe Jones of Loreto Mandeville Hall Toorak for an essay on asylum seeker policy and Anna Gruen of Melbourne Girls Grammar School for an essay on the carbon tax and climate change.
Thomas’s essay looks at the history of health care funding since World War Two, examines the hospital reform process launched by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and focuses on the need to make more progress in producing an equitable health system, especially in tackling mental illness.
While health is Australia’s largest industry and we are recognised as having one of the best healthcare systems in the world, tens of thousands of Australians are failed by the system annually.
Tom said that he felt very proud to have won the Prize. He chose health reform as his essay subject because “it was the Rudd Government’s big initiative and because it is a huge issue as our population ages.”
Tom, who hopes to study economics and law and one day work for the Department of Foreign Affairs or Treasury, said he thought that overall Australia was heading in the right direction, but “there are a lot of things to be done, particularly about climate change, which is a really big issue for my generation.”
The judges commended the essay’s depth of research, sophisticated analysis, ability to marshal evidence and high-quality writing.
The annual John Button School Prize commemorates the life, work and writing of John Button, the late Victorian Senator, Federal Minister and writer. It encourages students in Years 10 to 12 who feel strongly about Australia’s future to publish their best ideas in an essay. The John Button Foundation urges all Victorian secondary schools to submit their students’ work in the 2012 Prize. Details at www.johnbuttonprize.org.au
The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, the Victorian Association for The teaching of English, Social Education Victoria and the History Teachers’ Association of Victoria, are all supporters and partners of the John Button School Prize.
This year’s John Button Oration, The Fire Within, was given by former High Court Justice, the Honourable Michael Kirby.