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North Shore Bear Pit Public Speaking Competition

Published on: September 2025

Record: HANSARD-1323879322-156923

North Shore Bear Pit Public Speaking Competition

Ms FELICITY WILSON (North Shore) (17:07:00):

I celebrate another successful North Shore Bear Pit Public Speaking Competition for 2025. The Bear Pit is an annual public speaking competition that I run in schools across the North Shore electorate for stage two and stage three students, with the finals taking place in this very Chamber in our own Parliament. It is the highlight of every year for me. The competition provides pupils with a unique opportunity to enhance their public speaking skills and boost their ability to speak in front of a crowd. It is also an opportunity for me to hear and witness the knowledge, experience, expertise, values and issues at the forefront of those young minds. The Bear Pit competition is the brainchild of then member for Manly Mike Baird. In my very first year as a local member, I took it on and introduced it as a local event for my schools. I am grateful to all the primary schools and students that took part in this year's competition.

The students who joined us from Mosman Prep were Christian and Edward; from Queenwood, Freya and Elsie; from Neutral Bay Public School, Beatrix and Eddie—and thankfully I am not a judge because otherwise I would have been very biased, as a Neutral Bay mum—from Blessed Sacrament in Clifton Gardens, Juliet and Henry; from Mosman Public School, Victoria and Laura; from Marist College, Mari and Florence; from Loreto Kirribilli, Madeline and Amelia; from St Aloysius, Samson and Lincoln; from Beauty Point Public School, Eaton and Miranda; from Shore, Orlando and Harrison; and from Middle Harbour, Jack and Sasha. Those outstanding pupils competed against all students across their stages in their own schools on a range of different topics. They only had a few minutes to speak and present, and the messages they got across in that time were incredibly inspiring.

Some of the speeches included how having a friend with autism has been personally treasured by one of the students and has shaped their world view of inclusion and difference and made them question their own identity. We heard about how a future where world conflict is ended is something we can deliver if we all work together. Students had the opportunity to be accompanied by their parents or other loved ones, including siblings and grandparents in support. It was amazing to see the horseshoe of this Chamber filled with people coming out to support their loved ones and cheering on the kids in their lives and their successes.

It was also wonderful to see so many teachers joining in from the respective schools to give encouragement to their pupils. It is not just that they supported their pupils on the day; their work behind the scenes to enable this public speaking competition to happen in the schools is also fundamental to its existence. More than that, it is about the lessons that they give their students not only in public speaking but also to embrace their ideas, challenge themselves and speak up with confidence about the things that matter to them. Despite each participant doing a fantastic job, there can be only a winner and runner-up from each of the year groups. Thankfully, those decisions were the responsibility of three independent judges, who were all spoilt for choice.

I give a huge thank you to our trio of judges this year: Anna Usher from the Mosman Collective, who was back again; Michelle Giglio, who is the editor-in-chief of Active Networks and also back again from previous years; and Manuela Sudic from the Office of the Clerk in the New South Wales Parliament. They had the toughest job of all. I just got to listen and enjoy, while they had to choose between them. I congratulate our winners on taking out the top spots for 2025: Lincoln Taylor from St Aloysius, who spoke on "An invention that could change the world"'; and Madeline Lee, stage two, from Loreto Kirribilli, who spoke on "It is important to have friends who are different to me". Both schools now take custodianship of the winner's shield until next year's competition. Well done also to our amazing runners-up for their outstanding efforts: Jack Beattie, stage two, from Middle Harbour Public School, who spoke on "If I went to space, I would..."; and Eddie Fagan, stage three, from Neutral Bay Public School, who spoke on "An invention that I think could change the world".

The Bear Pit is always the highlight of the year for me. This event showcases the confidence, creativity and passion of our young speakers. These remarkable students all showed that our future is bright, with the next generation understanding and pushing for action on the pressing issues of our time, including solving the climate crisis and defending our hard-earned gains in the equality space. I am sure we may even see some of the contestants return to sit on these historic green benches in the future—hopefully, they will not stand against me or my fellow members—a bit older, a bit wiser and, this time, elected by the people of New South Wales instead of being invited by me. I am already looking forward to Bear Pit 2026.