Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

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Our No. 1 issue is the 25 per cent youth unemployment in Shepparton. This program gave a voice to some of our young people who are doing it really tough but who are triumphing. I mention in particular Denah Coonerty, who talked about the fact that she will be the first in her family to have completed year 12, and she is so proud about that. We were proud with her. She almost dropped out in years 8 and 9, when her attendance level was down to 20 per cent, but she pulled herself back. As she said:

No one forces me to go to school every morning, I have to do that myself. No one makes me dinner every night. I just push myself.

And she does. She has aspirations to further education after she, as we fully expect, triumphs in her year 12.

Then there was Ebony Nelson, a young mother, who again left school when she was very young. She came originally from Kyabram, a nearby town. She has a young daughter. She aspires to a really good life for her daughter. As she said:

… I don't want to struggle with money every week to get her nappies or just have essentials in life.

Ebony is back in training, with her little girl. She is doing a great job as a young mother. We all commend the work she does.

We had our multiculturalism on display and triumphing. We had young people from Iraq talking about the multicultural sporting teams, which are fantastic. We had a young man so proud that he is now a shift manager at McDonald's. We talked particularly about the agricultural career opportunities. It was a shock to see how many of our unemployed young people did not understand the opportunities that agriculture offered in our community for not just jobs at the lowest level but careers that could be extraordinarily interesting and remunerative. I want to thank SBS for taking a careful and I think sensitive approach to a very serious problem in my community. I also want to thank the young people who participated.