Twelve-Year-Old’s Gripping One Nation Takedown Wins 2026 Australian Poetry Slam

Year 6 student Blake Mackenzie has been crowned winner of Word Travels’ 2026 Australian Poetry Slam alongside the 2026 Adult Champion, Bivor. 

It comes after the twelve-year-old poet from Newcastle took to the Sydney Opera House stage on Sunday — alongside a dozen adult competitors — and delivered a decisive takedown of both One Nation and ChatGTP.

Australian Poetry Slambassador Blake Mackenzie’s Winning Poems

Mackenzie’s first round entry, a spoken-word poem entitled I love my country, examined the growing racism and polarisation dividing Australia, ultimately condemning Pauline Hanson’s One Nation for fuelling the fire. 

Mackenzie would later progress to the second round after securing the votes of several judges randomly sampled from the audience. Here, Mackenzie delivered yet another striking poem, Dear ChatGPT. 

Alongside garnering shrill laughter from the audience, this second poem posited compelling questions about whether AI is truly a useful advisor, friend, or educator, or whether it is simply depriving young Australians of the chance to grow and foster authentic connection.

For his writing and moving delivery of these poems, Mackenzie was crowned the 2026 Australian Poetry Slambassadorship. 

The second competitor to share in this prestigious $20,000 prize package was Bivor, a spoken-word poet from Alice Springs. Bivor performed Ourselves, followed by Politics is doing you, the latter an artful aspersion of the popular “I’m just not a political person” defense, which, according to Bivor, simply means the speaker is a privileged beneficiary of the hailing political regime.

As Youth Champion, Blake will now have the opportunity to perform at festivals across Australia, while Bivor will represent Australia at international festivals in Ubud and Singapore as the Adult Champion.

About The Australian Poetry Slam

Now in its 22nd year, the Australian Poetry Slam, presented by non-profit literary arts organisation Word Travels, is a national performing writers program in which people perform their original poems and stories. 

As part of the competition’s first regional heats, competitors across Australia are selected by audience members of their local community to progress to the next stage.

The 2026 season ran 65 heats in 60 towns and cities, leading to Finals in every State and Territory before the nation’s top 16 spoken-word artists joined each other on the Sydney Opera House stage on Sunday.

“Australian Poetry Slam takes the pulse of a nation each year with writers tackling themes as dark as domestic violence and as pithy as a job interview at 7-11,” said CEO and Creative Director of Word Travels, Miles Merrill.

“People have shared what matters to them in towns and cities from Wallaby Creek in Far North QLD to Hobart to Tennant Creek to Bunbury to Parramatta and 60 other places in between. Last night the crowd chose two voices they want representing Australia on the world stage. Congratulations to Blake and Bivor, our 2026 Australian Poetry Slambassadors.”