Carolyn Male MP, State Member for Pine Rivers, is reminding Pine Rivers students they still have time to enter this year’s Buy Smart competition which awards cash prizes to those showing the best shopping and money skills.

Carolyn Male MP said the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) competition closed on 17 September 2010 and is encouraging those who had not yet entered to get cracking so they could be in the running.

“It’s a fun competition. Students work in teams or on their own researching and then making a creative presentation which demonstrates how good their knowledge is about consumer rights,” Carolyn Male MP said.

“The entry may take the form of a brochure, DVD, song, board game, animation and more on consumer subjects such as scams, refunds, online shopping, debt and credit cards.”

“Students must make their presentation to their classmates and submit it to the OFT.”

“Entries are judged on creativity, quality, ability to communicate a consumer message and relevance to classmates, with the winners to be announced in October.”

“Cash prizes are up for grabs in each of the categories: school years 5-7, years 8-9 and years 10-12.”

“One of the winners of last year’s competition wrote new lyrics to a couple of familiar tunes, recording new hits such as ‘Save it up’, ‘Keep on saving’ and ‘Reach for the budget’,” Carolyn Male MP said.

“Another team developed a fun board game called the ‘Junior Tycoon’ while we also saw some great tips for managing money in the ‘Avoid the debt net brochure’.”

Carolyn Male MP said young people began using mobile phones, debit cards and credit cards at a much earlier age these days and that the OFT wanted to help them to avoid purchasing troubles, to manage debt wisely, and to be aware of their consumer rights so they are not taken advantage of.

For more information on the Buy Smart Competition visit www.fairtrading.qld.gov.au/buysmart.