Teaching kids about consumer rights

The Queensland Government is reminding school teachers, parents and students about the annual Buy Smart Competition, offering students and schools the chance to win cash prizes.

The competition aims to teach students about consumer rights.

“The Buy Smart Competition is a creative and fun platform for students to learn core life skills, such as money management and the consequences of consumer decisions," said Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Yvette D’Ath.

“As part of the competition, students research a consumer or financial issue, think of a target audience that needs to know more about it, and make a creative project to explain the topic and give advice to the target audience,” she said.

Cash prizes are from a total prize pool of more than $15,000 across three categories (school Years 4–6, Years 7–9, and Years 10–12):

• First prize – $500 for the student/group, $2,000 for the student’s school or organisation
• Second prize – $250 for the student/group, $1,000 for the student’s school or organisation
• Third prize – $150 for the student/group, $500 for the student’s school or organisation
• School champion prize – $1,500 to the school judged most outstanding in consumer and financial literacy education
• Highly commended student prizes – up to 10 $50 prizes for students/groups across all categories.

D’Ath said the competition was in line with the Australian Curriculum and that the Office of Fair Trading offered resources that allows the topic to be easily implemented within the classroom.

Entries would be judged on their creativity, quality, ability to communicate a consumer message and relevance to their audience.

“Officers from the Office of Fair Trading will also be visiting schools across Queensland to give presentations on a range of consumer topics including budgeting, debt and avoiding scams,” D’Ath said.

Schools can book a presentation for students, get competition resources and find details on how to enter at www.qld.gov.au/buysmartcomp. Students can enter individually or as a team until Friday 15 September 2017.