Squiz Kids acknowledges the traditional owners of the lands on which we podcast, the Turrbal and Gadigal people.
Squiz Kids! It's your daily news fix.
Fun. Free. Fresh. Hello, it's Bryce Corbett here, and welcome back to part two of our very special Squiz Kids Q &A with Australia's Governor -General Sam Mostyn, the podcast where the kids of Australia get to ask the questions.
If you missed part one, hit pause now and go and check it out.
The Gigi took questions on what a Governor -General actually is, why kids should even care if they can't vote till they're 18, and perhaps most importantly, whether she can ban homework.
You might be surprised at her answer.
And now it's time to dive into the second half, where Gigi Sam reveals whether she's actually met King Charles and be to his palace and discover what she's learned since becoming the Governor -General.
Let's pick up the conversation where we left off yesterday.
Let's head back down to the south now and hop across the Bass Strait to take a question from our youngest Inquisitor today, five -year -old Luke from Kingston Beach in Tasmania.
Hi, my name is Luke.
I am five years old.
I live in Tasmania, Kingston Beach, and my question is, have you met the king and what's he like?
Oh, Luke, thank you so much for that lovely question.
It's a very special question, and I have been to Tasmania a few times lately.
Lately it's been up in the northwest, but I have been to Hobart, I think, where Kingston Beach is.
So thank you for that question, Luke.
Cooke I have the great privilege of saying yes I have met the king wow on a couple of occasions amazing yeah I first met him when he was Prince Charles he came to Australia and did a tour and he looked at the Great Barrier Reef and he had a meeting with some people who were interested in the reef on an island called Lady Elliot Island in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef yes yes and I was part of a group there that welcomed him to that island and we went out on a glass bottom boat to look at the state of the coral so i met i met him as a prince very interested in australia he did some of his growing
up in australia indeed in geelong he went to school for a very brief period he did and he has a very strong and very affectionate view of australia and his time here and his mother the queen when she was the queen of australia she came many many times so there's a strong relationship between the king and and this country as king he is a A very modern king.
He's interested in things that I think most of the kids on this podcast are interested in.
He's interested in how young people are going.
Yes. He's interested in what's happening with the environment and nature.
He's interested in first peoples and how that across the Commonwealth matters to him.
He's interested in what it means to be a modern king.
And so when I first met him, again, I've got to show my privilege.
I went to London. I went to Buckingham Palace.
You did not. I did.
You've been to the palace.
To meet the king. Wow.
Did you walk in those gates at the front with the guards standing to attention?
Yes, so we drove in in a beautiful car with the Australian flag flying.
There were lots of people outside the gates who thought I was very important and must have thought I was maybe – You are.
Well, no, I think they thought I was a major part of the royal household before taking photos and I felt like saying, no, no, no, I'm from Australia.
Just gg, Sam. But you pull up and you're welcomed by the wonderfully robed guards and escorted me up through to the king's private quarters and we had about an hour together, a wonderful conversation.
Was he wearing his crown?
No, he was not. Was he on the throne?
No, he was not. No, no. So that's the thing about being modern.
He's in a very beautiful place.
I mean, Buckingham Palace, after the meeting, his team took me through all of the art collections and the ballrooms and the beautiful things that are housed.
What's it like inside Buckingham Palace?
It's just as you'd imagine.
It's a palace. It is extraordinary.
It's the most beautiful art, history everywhere, You wear exceptional things that you can't believe you're close to and seeing history in real time.
And it's all on display.
And there are public tours of Buckingham Palace.
So Australians visiting can book a tour and see what I saw.
But what a lovely, lovely man, a lovely couple.
As I said, deeply committed to Australia.
And they had worked with our team to build a program to meet a modern, diverse and successful Australia.
He met people who really mattered to the future of the country and he met a lot of young people and reflected on the fact that Australia is a mighty country and one that he's very proud to have his association with, but he's also very clear about us determining our future as well.
And that question always of not telling us what to do, but deeply invested and interested about our success and proud of everything that we do.
We had a lot of questions, as it turns out, about the King and your role with respect to him, which is why this question from Rachel in beautiful Lakes Entrance in Victoria is such a great question.
Take it away, Rachel.
Hi, my name is Rachel.
I am 10 years old and I live in Lakes and Chins in Victoria.
My question is, does the king have anything to do with making laws in Australia?
So, Rachel, that's a really important constitutional question and one that goes to the unique nature of our constitutional monarchy, which is our system of governance and government.
The king does not have a role in the making of laws in Australia.
other than that final piece which is the royal assent where the Crown gives effect to the law which I administer as the Governor -General.
And I would never ring him or contact him through the palace to say what do you think I should do with this part of the lawmaking part of the country.
So all those things are within our Westminster system of government, our parliamentary system, our very solid, solid constitutional democracy which works so well for us and allows us over time to develop and mature as a modern Australia but keep things very, very continuous and solid that allows us the freedom to do the things we do with the people we elect into our parliaments.
And I love that you say that you could ring him.
So you have his mobile or you slide into his DMs or how does that work?
That was probably a little bit cheeky of me.
I would contact him via his official secretary, through my official secretary.
And so, no, I couldn't ring him.
But I do write occasionally with just updates on how we're going.
And we've just celebrated the King's birthday long weekend where we had the King's birthday honours announced.
And I'm in the process of writing him a long letter, which just says, how is Australia?
More out of respect for his interest in how we're going and to tell him a few stories about what does success look like.
I've been traveling the country meeting all of the Australians of the year and the finalists, the young Australians of the year, the local heroes.
And they're the kind of stories that the King would like to hear.
What does it tell us about who are the very best of Australians?
And I think I might write to him about Squiz Kids because if civics are exciting and sensational, that's something I think a modern king wants to know.
I could share with him that I participated in this and that there were questions about the king and his relationship to Australia.
Yeah, within the context of a very modern Australia.
Yes. A bit of a change of pace now, Gigi Sam, as we head to Gerilderie, a beautiful place in New South Wales, where Wilbur has a very important question.
Hi, my name is Wilbur and I'm 11 years old.
I live in Gerilderie in New South Wales and my question is, what team do you go for in the AFLW and AFL?
Go Tigers! Well, oh my goodness.
Wilbur, go the Tigers.
I can't believe I said that actually.
You said go the Tigers.
I just said go the Tigers.
On the record. Well, the Tigers are an incredible team and an incredible club.
So I am a long -time supporter of the Sydney Swans.
Okay. Yes. Go to the Swannies.
Go to the Swannies.
But I am one of those people in footy that can get pretty excited about other teams if they're not playing my team.
Okay. So if the Tigers and the Swannies were playing, of course I'd be all Swans.
But sometimes I'll see the Tigers playing another team and I'll be all in for the Tigers because they are such a mighty club and those three premierships back -to -back in recent times are incredible and Tigers fans should take that because I wish I was with a team that had three back -to -back premierships.
Oh, there's always hope.
There's always hope.
When there's time, there's hope.
That's the great thing about footy.
But in AFLW, I find it harder to have a team.
Of course the Swanee women's team matters to me because I'm a Swanee.
But I also find that in the women's – because it's so new, because we're just starting out on the journey of women's professional football, that I just love every one of the teams, all the women that play, the people who support women's footy in the AFLW, because there was a time when women did not have their own competition.
Indeed. And I was working in the AFL at that time on the board and I was approached by women all over the country who said, why don't we have a competition for women and why when we're about 12 or 13 do we have to stop playing?
But our brothers, our cousins, our dads did it, our uncles played.
Why don't we get to play in a competition?
And a lot of women brought that to me.
A lot of men thought about that too and said, why can't my daughter or my granddaughter, why can't she go off and play her favorite game?
And to that point, if I may just interrupt, we do have a question from Bronte on the Gold Coast, who is actually asking very much around this very specific question and I'll throw it to Bronte now.
Hi, my name is Bronte and I'm 12 years old.
I live on the Gold Coast. My question is, I heard you helped create the AFLW.
Why is it important for girls to play sport and have their own professional sports?
Thank you, Bronte. And I reckon Bronte's probably got a lot of sporting stories to tell us about.
I think Bronte's probably quite an accomplished sports person, yes.
I think so too. So go Bronte and go girls in sport.
So I think it is really important that we've come a long way of thinking equally about boys and girls and the sports we can play.
If I flip it, at the moment one of the fastest growing sports for men and boys is netball.
Indeed. And so getting over this idea that some sport belongs to men or boys or women and girls is something we've just got to throw that out and say all sports, all people, all abilities, And so I was really proud to be involved in developing AFLW because there wasn't a pathway.
But if we think about what the Matildas have been doing, our Australian women's cricket team.
Yes, world beaters.
And the strength of just women's sports competitions across the country and the support that men and boys have and see it as just part of the most incredible thing.
It's a sport. And we're a sporting nation.
Sport matters to us.
And so you ask about why is it important that girls play sport.
it's because everything we do to make sure that girls are equal makes us a better country because everyone's better it's not just about the girls and women it's about being an equal country where everyone gets to do the things they want to do we don't put barriers on because you're a girl or you're a boy or you come from another place or you look different or you have a different level of ability everything should be open in sport and we know that when sport's at its best it binds us together just as with sporting fans we get very excited it makes us feel good we go on the highs and lows of our
team team really importantly for young people in sport i think in team sport we learn how to win well and we learn how to lose well and i grew up playing lots and lots of sport i think it's one of the reasons i'm actually in this job is that team sport taught me why team matters what leadership looks like in a team but how you can win well by not just ignoring the fact that there's another team or how did you get to win who supported you broader than the players and how How do you lose well when you feel pretty miserable and take the good things out of it about your team?
And they're pretty good life lessons.
Oh, absolutely. And so I love it.
I see a lot of sport around the country and I get to as much local sport as I can all the way through to some of our international representatives.
So it really matters.
And the girls' sports movement just tells us that we're getting more equal and that we've got a lot of talent.
And I also say, my daughter was a good example of this.
Sport wasn't the greatest thing for her, but she enjoyed participating at school because it was team and it was a chance to get to know other students.
Yes. But she's involved in the arts today.
She's an actor and a writer.
And I think it's important we don't think of these things as competing against one another.
No, indeed. You can be in the school play or the school choir and still be in the sporting teams and vice versa.
And it doesn't mean that you've got to be tough to be in sport and soft to be in the arts.
No, and one is not more worthy than the other.
They all matter. So many of our squiz kids, boys and girls, they love dance classes.
Just enormous out there.
Dance, gym, sports, getting up and doing public speaking, asking squiz questions, being interested, playing chess, doing crosswords.
All those things and having an interest in the arts, going and visiting galleries, listening to music, making music, engaging with things that I think make us whole creatively, and I think kids particularly, and I'm sure it's the same with squiz kids.
You make beautiful things.
You write beautiful poetry.
You write beautiful stories.
your questions today are beautiful and they go to something about who we are today.
So sport's great but so are the arts and culture and doing it all is actually sort of what I generally recommend.
Yeah, wonderful. Now, Gigi, so I'm trying to get in as many kids' questions here as possible and so we're going to go with a doubleheader with two questions that I think work quite well together.
Let's now go to Colin from Kowoola in country New South Wales and nine -year -old Amelia who lives in the ACT itself.
self hi my name is Colin I'm nine years old and I live in Karawala in New South Wales my question is why did you want to become Governor General hi my name is Amelia and I'm nine years old I live in Canberra in the ACT and my question is what is the most interesting thing you've learned while being the Governor General well thank you for those two questions they work quite well together, what am I learning in this job?
I'm learning a lot about what it really means to be Australia in a modern context.
I'm seeing things from a perspective I didn't ever have because I see things every day that tell me where we're going and how our country works.
And I see that as part of the privilege of Governor General.
And did I want to be Governor General?
No. And it had never occurred to me.
I mean, I was a pretty serious student.
I was school captain at primary school congratulations to all the school captains out there maybe it can take you to the office of governor general i don't know captains take note yes so i i've always been a kind of studious person but i had i would never have thought that i would be in this office today but i i still pinched myself and you never know it's possible i think part of what i always did growing up and it started when i was quite young was saying yes to all possibilities and being quite preposterous when someone said really important could you do this instead of saying i'm not ready
for it or i'm don't know how to don't know how to or i need to be better at this before i do it which often we do when we're young i'd say yes and the worst thing that can happen is you'd make a few mistakes but generally you get into something new you do something you represent you show up you get on that stage give that speech whatever it is and suddenly you discover things in yourself that someone else saw yes because that's why they asked you yes to do something and and i found in my career i did that a lot and it ends up with the the Prime Minister asking me to do something which is completely
preposterous. I didn't ever think I'd be the Governor General, but now that I am I'm paying attention to why the job matters and why the civics matters because I've realised that I hadn't been paying attention enough to our civics either growing up or as an adult.
I thought we were okay and when I saw the research, so few people, not just young people, but so few adults know about our civics and care about it And that's why misinformation, disinformation, all those things suddenly makes decisions for us rather than us being curious and interested and full of power to determine our future.
Well, that is a wonderful segue to our next question.
And it's a question that's quite close to my heart.
Now, as you know, we're all about media literacy here at SquizKids, teaching Aussie kids how to think critically about the flood of information that they're exposed to online on a daily basis, and especially to make sure that they don't fall for what you've just has spoken about, mis - and disinformation.
We've created a free media literacy resource called News Hounds.
And Oscar from Sydney has a question on that topic that he'd like to ask you.
Hi, I'm Oscar. I'm 12 years old.
I live in Sydney, New South Wales.
My question is, Squizzy tells us to stop, think and check when we're online.
Why is media literacy so important for kids um thanks oscar and you're in sydney where i'm spending a bit of time at the moment and we're here recording in sydney so it's it's wonderful to get your question this is a really really important question and i'm so glad that um you you care about information and learning i've become a bit of a fan of squizzy i like the idea of the news hound that's out there searching for truth and fact and remains curious so i think and that evidence tells us that we now are surrounded by so much information coming at us from so many different sources, it's getting
very hard to work out what is fact and what is someone else's opinion, or it's just wrong, it's factually wrong, but allows you to think certain things and make bad decisions.
So I think the fact that Squizzy is out there doing that job, it really matters.
I wish it was a Squizzy for adults, actually.
Oh, we're working on that.
We'll do that because I meet adults who believe everything they're hearing as well.
And that misinformation or the deliberate disinformation where you're you're taking someone else's view on something rather than getting facts.
So the fact that Squizzy asks us all to stop, to think, and to check, that's a very good set of rules for all of us, for everything we do.
I also say that in this country we need to care about the way we debate things.
So I say we've got to show respect for someone we don't agree with.
If you want to hold your line about what you believe in, how we debate should never be about violence or anger or discounting that person entirely and being rude.
It should be about saying, well, I know you think that.
I think this. If we can't agree, let's just leave it there but let's not have a big fight about it.
And we learn about that in sport.
Yes. Back to the Tigers in the 20s.
Yes. I can go to a game and think the Tigers fans are my enemies during that game but we do it well because we respect each other's love of the game but we have a different perspective.
And at the end of the game, we're friends again.
And I think that's something I think for young people to learn how to disagree agree or argue well and with respect so we don't end up with fights and hating people when we don't need to.
Just respectful conversations, always based on stopping, thinking, checking.
Absolutely. Couldn't have said it better ourselves.
Back to Victoria now, where eight -year -old Josh has an excellent question.
Take it away, Josh.
Hi, my name is Josh.
I am eight years old and I live in Lake Stenton, Victoria.
And my question question is if you could make any rule what do you think would be the most important for Australia?
Josh thank you that is such a great question and I wish I could make rules.
I think as your civics education will tell you I don't actually get to make the laws I give effect to the laws that come through the parliament at the will of the people but what I am really really passionate about is putting something at the centre of the culture of Australia for everyone to think about.
And I said this when I was first sworn in in the Senate in my speech a year ago today.
I said, if we could put care, kindness and respect at the centre of everything we do, then that would make us an even better country and it would make us better people.
And I think about this through care for each other.
How do we show that care for one another?
other how do we have care for those that do the caring of others like teachers or nurses or doctors or aged care workers disability support workers they're doing lots of care all the time your parents actually doing that great caring work or your siblings whoever you're caring for and then care for our continent the environment the beautiful things that have always made us feel good about nature and australia's natural environment and then care for the way we have conversations and deal with very tough issues and finally care for civics and institutions so we should care about the civics as you
do here at Squiz Kids not just think about civics as some kind of topic it's the fundamentals of how we operate as a nation and there's a gift there if we care to think about it about certainty and security and continuity so if I had a superpower that was to do something Josh it's not so much that I would I could make a law but I might my My rule for the day might be show care and kindness and respect in everything you do and I think the country would lift because wherever I see that already, communities that put that at the centre of what they do are magical.
They care for each other.
They think about care and care isn't soft. Yes.
It's actually quite hard to do regularly without show up.
You know, volunteers.
Yes. If you're a volunteer young, show up and help your community.
That's hard to do but by doing it, you're showing that you care and you're being kind to others who might need your help and underpin it all with respect.
And I think they're actually characteristics of Australians that we should care very deeply about.
So that would be my rule.
I think that's a great rule.
We might need to get some Squiz Kids badges made up with kindness, care and respect.
I'd love that. Yeah.
Almost at the end now, Gigi, Sam, how are you bearing up in the hot seat?
I'm loving this. These are some of the best questions I get.
They're good questions, aren't they?
They're wonderful. Clever kids.
Final question now from Felicity in Windsor, which is a lovely suburb in my hometown of Brisbane.
Hi, my name is Felicity.
I am age 10, and I live in Brisbane, Queensland.
My question is, when you were 11 years old, what did you think you would do when you grew up?
And did you ever imagine that you would become the Governor -General of Australia?
Well, thank you, Felicity.
Queenslander, I've been saying a lot of go blues lately for State of Origin, but it's looking – Wash your mouth.
It's tense. It is tense.
It's a very tense series with State of Origin.
So we'll put that to one side.
Put that to one side.
May the best state win at the end of it all.
It's the safest thing to say.
It is the safest thing to say.
Felicity, when I was 11 years old, I'd just been my school captain at my primary school.
So I sort of always showed up for things, school councils, and I was that kid that would take things very seriously.
I had no idea what I wanted to be, though.
I'd grown up in an army family.
I knew that being part of a community was important.
We grew up with some disability in our family.
We'd done a lot of volunteering in disability communities.
We'd done a lot in going and being volunteers.
I door knocked for the Salvos.
Wonderful. for. I do not for the Heart Foundation because as a family, we were always about the neighbourhood and about showing up and being part of a community.
So I don't think I was consciously thinking about what I wanted to do.
I didn't have a burning ambition to be a scientist or a doctor.
It wasn't that kind of path.
I think if I look back, I just wanted to be part of things that make the world better and that being involved in things where you do show up and being part of a community can make things good.
I had never imagined this.
It is still the biggest shock to me that I'm here, it is also the biggest opportunity.
I'd never think about that lightly, that once you say yes to high public office and to be your governor general, it means something that requires an absolute commitment to the best values, to representing Australia well, to reflecting Australia back, and to listening.
And so that's why being here at Squiz Kids, listening to these great questions and thinking about the fact that people in my role have got to give you confidence that one day any one of you could be in this role.
Indeed. if it's something you wanted or anything else you want to do.
And when you find the thing that does matter to you, and I've got friends for whom it was really important, the thing they knew early was the thing, to stick with it and give it a go and know that following passions does make you happy and sometimes having a backup plan is good so that you can survive well.
But sometimes it's about following the things that really matter and always showing up with good values.
And I think I get back to being kind to people, caring about others, showing respect and backing yourself without limits.
And I think that I was doing a lot of that without being conscious of where it might take me, but it ended up being one of the luckiest lives.
And I feel the immense privilege, and I would never have imagined I'd be here talking to so many wonderful young kids all around the country and encouraging you to care as well.
What a wonderful note to end on.
And that, Your Excellency, the Honourable Sam Mostyn, is what we call in the industry a wrap.
Excellent. Thank you so much for joining us.
This is so great. It's been such a wonderful honour to have you on Squeeze Kids.
It really has. I'd love to have you back maybe at Government House or Admiralty House and do some walkthroughs.
We've been watching the amazing work you've been doing on Instagram and we'd love maybe to come down and do a Squeeze Kids visit of Government House and Admiralty House, maybe if you would be open to that.
Consider that invitation given.
Oh, wonderful. You just need to choose the date and time and we'll do that.
That is fantastic. There you go.
We've all been invited to Government House.
How lucky are we? me listeners if this is the first time that you've stumbled across us during the school terms squids kids is a daily news podcast made just for kids a kid friendly take on the big news headlines fun free fresh and teachers don't forget about newshounds our free media literacy resource teaching primary school kids how to spot misinformation when they come across it online a nine -part podcast series with a company and classroom workbook and a teacher manual currently being used by more than four and a half thousand classrooms around the country Check it all out at squizkids .com .au
or simply subscribe to Squiz Kids in your favourite podcasting app.
For now, though, this is Bryce Corbett signing off.
And as is customary with our Q &As, we're going to ask our special guest to do the traditional Squiz Kids sign off.
Thank you, Bryce. Now, get out there and have a most excellent day.
Over and out. Well, how about that?
what a great Squiz Kids Q &A and remember if you can't get enough of GG Sam in this brilliant Q &A you can see some fun shorts on the Squiz Kids YouTube channel right now the full video featuring all the incredible kids who asked their questions and Governor General Sam Mostyn in the hot seat is landing on the Squiz Kids YouTube channel first thing tomorrow watch it all start to finish and be inspired
