Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education, Childcare, Women and Youth) Share this | Hansard source

I join with the Minister for Youth in congratulating the young Australians who attended the launch of the Australian Youth Forum on 2 October in Adelaide. The coalition does support measures and initiatives that see young Australians given a bigger seat at the policy table of this great nation. I would like to make it clear that the opposition supports any attempt to establish bodies that directly focus on young people. However, Labor’s new national Youth Forum must meet the very high standards and opportunities that the coalition’s National Youth Roundtable has provided young Australians with over the past decade.

When in government, the coalition had a very proud record or supporting and promoting young Australians. No greater example of this was the coalition’s very successful National Youth Roundtable. It gave young Australians a very strong voice in government and an input into the many policy areas that impact on their lives. As outlined by the Minister for Youth, there are many unique issues facing young Australians today, and the AYF must recognise these and take decisive action. Dialogue and open discussion are all very helpful and good and well and provide information to government ministers, to the opposition and to other bodies interested in developing policies affecting young people, but this must lead to real outcomes—and real outcomes come from implementing policies that make a difference, that affect the lives of young people in various ways in the areas with which they are concerned.

There is no more important issue to the lives of young people than the opportunity to get a job, to gain employment. There are many issues across the spectrum—technology based issues, environmental based issues and other global issues. No doubt the current financial crisis is of concern to young people, as it is to all Australians. The opportunity to get a job, the opportunity to have that freedom to develop their own career and to choose their own path in life, gives young people the freedom to make choices about their lives. The opposition, particularly the Liberal Party, has as one of its founding principles to maximise freedom for individuals to lead their lives. The best way you can do that is not to have people consigned to welfare but to give them the freedom to create opportunities in their lives, and that is through giving them a job. There are also issues such as learning and developing skills. Having the opportunity to fulfil one’s educational aspirations, whether that leads to education or to a broader understanding, allows young people to build on their confidence and their knowledge and to go forth—to have a family, to have a job and to have a life.

The government must put policies in place that address the concerns of young people. Simply holding a forum will not achieve this. Action, leadership and decisions need to follow immediately. We cannot have endless reviews and endless summits. My fear, which I hope is not fulfilled, for the future wellbeing of young Australians is that the AYF will fall into the same talkfest that the 2020 Youth Summit was. There has been a considerable amount of criticism from many different individuals and organisations across the nation regarding the 2020 Youth Summit. My hope is that the AYF will be a lot more beneficial and meaningful to young Australians than the 2020 Youth Summit, which many have labelled as a complete waste of time considering that no significant action by the government has followed. Discussion and feedback from delegates to the AYF need to be given serious consideration. I would not like to see the AYF swept under the carpet as have so many reviews, inquiries and forums already undertaken—and, no doubt, to be undertaken—by this government. It is all very well to convene all these forums and summits, but at some point young Australians are no different from other Australians in wanting action.

For instance, there is little point talking about issues impacting on young people when they cannot get a job. We know of the depressingly high unemployment rates that beset young people under the former Labor government. The unemployment rate reached over 34 per cent in July 1992. There was little hope for young people during that time, and unemployment affected young people across the board—young people who wanted to do apprenticeships and young people who had good university degrees. Their lives were fundamentally altered for a significant number of years because they could not fulfil their potential. They were consigned to a life that was not as fulfilling. They were consigned to a very difficult life that former generations had not suffered. That is something that we must guard against. This government must introduce policies and must listen to young people to ensure that we do not get to those high levels of unemployment again.

I am very proud of the track record of the previous coalition government in focusing its attention on specific policies that affected young people. I will mention a few of them. We had the $80 million package for the Reconnect program. This program was very important. It provided early intervention for young homeless Australians to move back with their families and their communities. Any family that has been severely affected or torn apart by the homelessness of one of their young family members will know that this is a very serious issue that affects families across all socioeconomic levels in our society. We had the $12 million package for the Mentor Marketplace program, which saw the business sector and the community unite to provide mentoring for young Australians who needed assistance. We had a very significant and very visible Tough on Drugs campaign, and we know that nothing affects the future ability of young people to lead their lives—to work, to study, to have meaningful relationships—than the physical, mental and emotional damage that can be caused from drug taking. It was very important to also see parents engaged in that campaign. I know many young people were educated on the long-term effects of drug taking, as were their families.

We had other programs like the POEM pilot program that began in May 2002, which provided full-time education and personal development programs for young people aged between 13 and 19 who were disconnected from mainstream schooling or had a tenuous connection to school. The coalition is very proud of the programs that it implemented. They were part of a very proud record that represented the concerns and the needs of young people and their families.

We support the government in the establishment of the AYF as a body that will aim to represent the concerns and aspirations of young people, which is exactly what it must do. It must represent their concerns and aspirations and lead to decisive action by this government.

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