Over the weekend, our Model United Nations team proudly represented St Mary’s in the Australian Final of MUNA, run by Rotary International. Having won their regional event in North Sydney earlier this year, our students stepped up to the national stage with passion and conviction.
Our team was sponsored by Beecroft Rotary to attend the two-day event at Old Parliament House where students from around Australia gathered to debate six resolutions from the perspective of their allocated countries.
St Mary’s was allocated Saudi Arabia in the Middle Eastern bloc and needed to prepare to discuss some of the challenging issues facing our time from this perspective including food security, crimes against the environment, peace in Ukraine, protection of the civilian protection in Gaza, global democratisation and universal education.
Our team were outstanding in their presentation and were commended for passionately embodying the position of their allocated nation, ultimately placing 3rd in Australia for their outstanding effort. Well done to Matthew Davies, Jamie Naffah and Xavier Smith for all their work.
Part of the event included attending a formal state dinner with Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay, who spoke to the students about the importance of civics in a functioning democracy and shared some of her recent work in moving to eradicate modern slavery – a tremendous experience.
Our team was lucky enough to be supported by three Year 12 students who generously gave up their time to attend the whole event – Evan Zafiropoulos, Peter Davies and Micheal Donnellan. These boys were on hand to assist our team with research and communication outside of the general debates, but they were also generous enough to assist other teams present who were preparing. Their efforts were commended by the Rotarian organisers who recognised each of them with an award – the first time something of this kind has occurred in the assembly. 
Overall this was a phenomenal experience for our students – congratulations!!
