December 2015 – Action for Agriculture

Johnny Depp might up picked up the Black Stump awards: Dill of the Year Award but I am giving Barnaby Joyce our genius “weird sweaty big-gutted man“ ( Johnny’s words not mine) the Communications Coup Wizard Award for 2015 for how he handled the Boo and Pistol smuggling case.

Such is the NSW Department of Primary Industries focus on biosecurity risks and concern it had fallen under the radar for most Australians they partnered with The Archibull Prize in 2015 to roll out a Biosecurity Competition in NSW Schools participating in the program

And just to show you how right they were to be concerned that “biosecurity” was a foreign concept for both adults and young people between 12 and 18 the following is an extract from the schools ‘entry and exit surveys evaluation

When they began The Archibull Prize only 38% of high school students (i.e. 123 of 327) had heard about biosecurity. Most of the Primary and High School teachers had (i.e. 86%, 30 of 35 teachers). Whilst 265 of the high school students offered an explanation for biosecurity, only 23 of these were acceptable; with 18 (of 35 teachers) explanations also being acceptable.

Awareness of biosecurity amongst High Schools students and their teachers on beginning The Archibull Prize, 2015

	High School Students		Primary Teachers		High School Teachers		Total teachers
Answer Options	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number
Yes	38%	123	77%	10	91%	20	86%	30
No	62%	204	23%	3	9%	2	14%	5
*answered question*		327		13		22		35
*skipped question*		12		1		0		1
Attempted an explanation	81%	265		13		22		35
Acceptable explanation given		23		4		14		18

At the end of their projects the majority of high school students (94%, 197) reported having heard about biosecurity. All the students (100%, 207) chose the correct answer for the definition of biosecurity i.e. the protection of the economy, environment and community from the negative impacts of pests, diseases, weeds and contaminants. A majority of students (72%, 150) correctly identified biosecurity practices; and considered that biosecurity is everyone’s responsibility (85%, 178). A further 191 students offered their understandings of what ‘biosecurity is a shared responsibility’ means. These results are a significant shift in awareness of biosecurity as a result of participation in The Archibull Prize.

Whilst the primary school students were not involved in the biosecurity competition and were not asked the question in the program entry and exit survey it was obvious from their artworks and the blogs they too had a phenomenal understanding of risks and their role in mitigating them as a result of participating in The Archibull Prize

Barnaby Joyce’s style and language and no-nonsense reaction to Johnny Depp’s wife bypassing the quarantine process when she ‘smuggled’ their dogs into Australia earlier in the year put Australia’s tough stance on biosecurity sent a very strong message globally

When Barnaby ordered his dog’s out and charged him with smuggling offences Johnny Depp continued to give biosecurity considerable oxygen and kept it front and centre by treating it as a joke by saying he had eaten his dogs. The court case will continue the good fight

Well done Barnaby confident you were happy to take the “weird sweaty big-gutted man“ comment on the chin for team Australia and the “biosecurity is a shared responsibility” cause

Loving this tweet by Kerry Anderson with some reverse kudos for Johnny

BTW Hurlstone Agricultural High School took out both best class entry and best student entry in The Archibull Prize 2015. Going forward Hurlstone is putting biosecurity on the curriculum and making it an assessment task ensuring ‘Biosecurity” is a foreign concept no longer

Below are the winning entries

Best Class Entry

Best Student Entry

It is with great pleasure that we share with you the winners of The Archibull Prize 2015

The Hon Niall Blair MP with students and teacher Sarah Robinson from Matraville Sports High School

Not only was the Hon Niall Blair Minister Minister for NSW Primary Industries, Land and Water on hand to congratulate the students and teachers he also spoke about the The Archibull Prize Awards and Exhibition Day in his speech to parliament on 17th November 2015.

You can read the full text in Hansard here

The Minister said of the Grand Champion

I am pleased to announce the 2015 winner of the prestigious Grand Champion Archibull award was Matraville Sports High School, from Chifley in the State’s east. Students should be proud of the work they achieved in their design of a fiberglass cow as a “cow-ch”, which is artistic and informative but acts as a functional seat. I will enjoy seeing this work in my office reception every day.

and made mention of the impact on visitors to his office of last year’s winner

Recently I had the pleasure of having morning tea with last year’s winners and have hosted their award-winning bull in my foyer. I look forward to the opportunity to do the same for the 2015 winners. I recently hosted a parliamentary delegation from France. They took many photos of the bull and are aiming to roll out a similar program in France.

Each year the Grand Champion and Reserve Grand Champion Archibull Prize winner is hosted in the offices of the NSW Minister for Primary Industries and the Director General’s office

In 2016 students from Matraville Sports High School will visit the Minister’s office for morning tea. Where as you can imagine, the visit creates a huge buzz in the school.