Local girl shortlisted for ‘Parent Tax’ video

Local girl, Stella Leslie, has been shortlisted for her "Parent Tax" entry in a federal competition.

By Dominique Tassell

Stella Leslie, a grade seven student at Warwick State High School, recently entered a competition called Tax, Super + You and was shortlisted out of seven in the junior category across the whole country.

The tax, super + you competition was created so students would have a fun and creative way to learn about tax and super.

In the junior category, Stella was tasked with highlighting the value of tax, super, or both in the community.

Stella says she found out about the competition when her dad came home with the flyer one day.

“I hadn’t been at school that day so I didn’t grab one myself,” she says.

Voting is open until Monday 6 September for the People’s Choice Award.

A winner will be announced from both the junior and senior categories.

Both winners will receive a prize of $600, plus $600 for their school.

The winners will be announced later this month.

Stella says she doesn’t know what Warwick State High School will do with the money, but if she wins she’ll take her family for a weekend away at the beach.

In her pitch for the competition, Stella spoke about how she came up with the idea for her video entitled “Parent Tax”.

She says she first asked her parents to explain superannuation and taxation to her.

Stella says her parents always get excited around tax time because of the tax return.

“I got the idea from my parents (for Parent Tax),” she says.

“Whenever we have treats they always take some and call it a ‘poison test’ or ‘parent tax’.”

Stella had to brainstorm who she should target her video at, and settled on primary school aged children.

“I found them easiest to relate to since I have just transitioned to high school and my youngest sister is in primary school,” she says.

“I really wanted to stick to the idea of a fun narrative because primary school students have had teachers talking to them all day and I didn’t want them to think it was just another teacher talking to them.”

Stella first tested the video idea with a focus group by asking a friend if they knew what ‘parent tax’ was.

After she explained it, her friend said that her parents do it all the time.

“I decided that using the idea of a ‘parent tax’ would be a good analogy that would appeal to my target audience,” Stella says. “It makes a complex idea simple to understand.”

Stella started work on the project in late March, working on it for a few months until she was happy with it.

She says the most challenging part of making the video was getting her sister, Adele, and her dad, Gavin, to do exactly what she needed them to do.

“I prefer to be behind the camera directing rather than in front of the camera acting,” she says.

She formed a storyboard of her ideas, then put together the rushes in iMovie and used Canva to make her pitch and the credits of the “Parent Tax’ video.

You can watch “Parent Tax” and vote online at www.taxsuperandyou.gov.au/vote2021