Geordie Brown, an 18-year-old Oxley High School student, who only finished his final HSC exam on Friday, is one of six panellists to front ABC’s Q&A’s High School Special 2.0 program tonight, alongside Education Minister Simon Birmingham and Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek.

The Leader caught up with Mr Brown ahead of tonight’s live show.

“A few months ago, I sent in an audition video after they put out an Australia-wide call for students to sit on a school panel,” Mr Brown said.

“I was selected to do it in NSW. 

“I’m very excited, obviously.

“(When I found out), I started straight away on some ideas I wanted to talk about.

“My role on the panel is to answer questions that get asked, but I’m very keen to speak about education and the role education plays in laying the foundations of the country’s future.”

Mr Brown has had a passion for politics and philosophy from a young age, leading him to be a guest speaker at many conventions.

He has also been involved in public speaking and debating throughout his schooling, representing his school in both, as a state finalist, his blurb on the Q&A website details.

Mr Brown is still tossing up what he wants to study next year at university – either film in Sydney, or completing a politics, philosophy and economics degree at the Australian National University in Canberra.

Mr Brown hopes to one day have a career in politics to represent issues close to his heart such as education, protecting future generations, environmental sustainability, embracing diversity and further supporting disadvantaged Australians, Q&A reports.

Mr Brown is the only regional student selected to sit on the panel, with his counterparts all hailing from Sydney.

“I’m very honoured to be chosen as a regional representative for the panel,” Mr Brown said.

“They tried to pick us all from different backgrounds, different ideologies.”

Mr Brown will have a huge support network watching the program, as friends and family tune into the program at 9.35pm tonight.