The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has announced the winners of its Buy Smart Competition 2021, with students from Years 4 and above sharing $15,000 in prize money.
Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Shannon Fentiman said the Buy Smart Competition was celebrating 20 years of fostering consumer awareness in students.
“Making sure our young Queenslanders understand their consumer rights and can spot a scammer is so important,” Ms Fentiman said.
“Last year scammers stole almost half a million dollars from under 18s in Australia with more than $100,000 from online shopping scams,” she said.
Ms Fentiman said with a growing demand for online shopping, Buy Smart was even more important now than it was 20 years ago.
The Attorney-General said the competition involved students identifying a consumer issue, researching it and presenting what they had learned in a creative way.
“With more than 7,000 students participating in the Program in 2021 and more than 750 students submitting entries, this year saw plenty of impressive entries accepted by the competition,” she said.
“From board games to dioramas, music videos, Instagram posts and animations, the Buy Smart Competition has it all but, most importantly, it shows us that students are excited and engaged in understanding consumer issues.”
The Buy Smart Program typically involves Office of Fair Trading officers visiting classrooms to present information to help students become savvy consumers and last year, COVID-related restrictions saw some of those visits being streamed into classrooms.
The Fair Trading Commissioner’s School Champion prize of $1,500 was awarded to Mutdapilly State School in the Scenic Rim, recognising strong participation from its cohort of Years 4, 5 and 6 students.
The students used their coding skills to make interactive games exploring refund rights and the importance of saving.
A full list of the winning schools and students can be accessed at this PS News link.
