It was an historic moment.
Students from All Saints College at Maitland, who have been studying commerce in Year 10 and were on the class' annual trip to Sydney to see the workings of state government, had expected to catch the rabble of Question Time before heading back up the M1 to home, but at the last moment, the session had been shifted to the afternoon on Tuesday.
Instead, they were told, they would be watching a different aspect of government business; the delivery of Labor's first state budget in over a decade.
The local school's Year 10 Commerce curriculum includes an annual excursion down to the big smoke to see how the grown-ups in charge are running the place, billed as a chance for students to see how the subjects of their studies are applied in the real world, as well as a chance to get some hands-on experience as thoughts turn to life outside the school gates.
The class arrived on Tuesday morning and were greeted by Maitland MP Jenny Aitchison before taking a tour of Parliament House finally sitting in on Labor's first state budget delivery since taking office in March.
As the class watched on, treasurer Daniel Mookhey unveiled his government's plan to take the state from a deficit this year to forecasted modest surplus as early as next year, with primary themes appearing to focus on reining in debt, relieving households of cost-of-living struggles, and bulwarking against future financial shocks.
Lake Macquarie MP Greg Piper, the speaker of the house, didn't let the moment pass without acknowledging the local students in the gallery, before Mr Mookhey took the floor.
"We have our name recorded in Hansard now," Commerce teacher Nick Wall said, "The speaker welcomed us as part of his opening address and our guide, Peter, was able to explain how the treasurer came from the Upper House into the Lower House to give the address.
"A lot them had their eyes opened to what sort of jobs are done and found it a lot different to just reading about it and seeing pictures," Mr Wall added.
"Some are interested in becoming journalists and they were able to see the cameras out the front and up in the box, and the journalists interviewing the different parliamentarians. It was a good trip."
The Year 10 Commerce class makes an annual trip to the big smoke, and is typically greeted by Maitland MP Jenny Aitchison who spoke to the students about her new road portfolio since becoming and the projects on the docket for the Hunter.
The member for Cessnock, Clayton Barr, is a former student of All Saints and also makes a point of checking in on the class during their visits.
"I was delighted to meet with All Saints students on such a historic day in the NSW Parliament," Ms Aitchison said, "I have always encouraged local schools to visit Parliament. There is an open invitation for all to call in while in Sydney.
"All Saints students visits Sydney each year and I was grateful they made time to visit me in Parliament this year on Budget day.
"I was able to speak to students about the Minns Labor Government's policies to repair regional roads and improve road safety."
There's a word for that ...
There are, as the saying goes, two kinds of people in the world; those who are on time. And me.
I remember a few years back, I frantically texted my new boss - one of my first newspaper editors - that I was going going to be late for work in the morning. Traffic trouble, I said, couched in many apologies. (I lived, at the time, in a small country town that had one arterial street and no traffic lights).
"I'm just trying to pick myself up off the floor from shock," my boss replied, with a wit as dry as sandpaper.
It's a condition, I have told countless long suffering employers, family members and friends, that I'm perpetually somehow 20 minutes late for everything (he writes, around 20 minutes past deadline for this column). But this week, there was a break in the case. It turns out, it really is a condition.
It's called tidsoptmism (according to an email sent to me by no less than two of my editors yesterday) - a kind of chronological optimism that causes people to think they have more time than they do in the day. And, at least according to some numbers released by ride-sharer Uber about a year ago, about seven in 10 Aussies have it; so much so that they reckon as a nation, we're around a half-hour late on average.
Try looking around your office, or the cafe where you're reading this, and count seven people; chances are they were supposed to be somewhere else about 20 minutes ago ...
