Young people proved themselves to be equally, if not more, electorally aware as many of their elders, The Canberra Times reported on this day in 1992, after results of an essay competition were revealed.
The question was "Which electoral system will serve Canberra better - the single-member or the Hare-Clark referendum option?"
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The two winners were Jane Hazelhurst, 17, of Yarralumla, who chose Hare-clark, and Melinda Baxendell, 15, of Macgregor, who opted for single-member electorates. The winners were chosen by political analyst Malcom Mackerras and politics lecturer, Scott Bennett.
Both winners were Labor supporters, but Jane, who initially contemplated writing about single-member electorates, said "... the more I researched into it I realised that no matter what my party loyalties were, Hare-Clark was better."
She thought it was "ridiculous" that political parties had aligned their campaigns with certain electoral systems, and did not know why Labour had chosen to support the single-member system.
Melinda chose the single-member system as she believed it would work better "for community issues" which local members would be obliged to attend to or face losing their seats the next time.
