Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I join my colleague the member for Blair in congratulating the cadets across our country. Bendigo, which is in my electorate, is an old town that has a long defence history. We too are home to Army cadets, Air Force cadets and Navy cadets. We see them each and every Anzac Day. They play an important role not just at Anzac Day events but at a number of other events that happen. Our RSLs quite regularly call upon our cadets to participate, help and raise the flag at their activities.

Cadets are critical, as others have said, in providing an opportunity and pathway to young people who might be interested in a career in the ADF. They do so much more than introduce young people to our Australian Defence Force opportunities. They also provide young people with an opportunity to come together to learn leadership skills, participate in team activities and be engaged in a really proactive and positive environment. You are part of a team when you're part of the cadets.

Not all young people are active in sport and not all young people are active in theatre. Cadets provide young people an opportunity to be involved in another activity after school. It's not for everyone, but some people really connect with it. Some make friends for life through being involved with the cadets, regardless whether they go on to a defence career or not.

It has been particularly hard for young people in all of our electorates but particularly those in Victoria over the last few years. I give a special shout-out to the people in my electorate, including the cadets, who haven't been able to gather like they usually do. There haven't been a lot of activities. Our Anzac services have been pared back because of COVID. They haven't been able to gather regularly on their parade nights, because of social-distancing requirements, or they have had to do it via zoom. One young cadet said to me that, after having schooling via zoom all day the last thing they wanted to do was cadets via zoom. It missed the point of why they would gather in person.

It has been a challenging two years for these young people and all young people. Last year I spoke to our year 12s, who were getting close to graduation. They were in year 11 when they were doing homeschooling. For most of year 12 they did homeschooling. I asked them what their plans and hopes were for the future. It was also to offer them an apology. It wasn't supposed to be this way. Those final two years of schooling are such a rite of passage. There's a plan from day one about what your final two years looks like, and so many of our young people just didn't get that opportunity. School formals looked different. Exams looked different. Being able to get together and do the regular extracurricular activities at school looked different. A number of them deferred their studies. They said that they weren't going to study this year and that they were going to look for other opportunities.

So I think that, when we're talking about our cadets, we need to talk more broadly about young people in Australia and we need to work out what we're offering a generation of teenagers and people in their early 20s—a generation of younger people that, because of COVID, have missed out on so much of what the rest of us got to do. Yes, it's different in states like WA and Queensland. But in states like Victoria and New South Wales, where we were subject to a lot of changes around what we could do, this is a generation that didn't get those rite-of-passage moments like the rest of us. This is a generation that may not have got the marks that they wanted and may not be studying. This is a generation for whom homeownership is looking more and more unlikely. This is a generation who, it looks like, will have four or five career changes, maybe even more of that.

So the more that our government can do to create opportunities for younger Australians, the better. The more cadet programs leading into apprenticeship programs within the Defence Force, the better. The more we look at expanding out and paying a proper wage to people who might want to work in conservation, the better. There's an opportunity for us here in this place to really think about how we can support that generation of young people, who've really borne the brunt of a lot of what's happened with COVID. I couldn't imagine being 18 or 19 and having to go through the last two years of what a lot of our young people in Australia have. They should be congratulated, but they should also be listened to.

So I'm keen to hear more from our cadets about what they'd like to see in the future. I'd like to thank them for what they do. We couldn't have the events that we have in Bendigo without their service. I'd also like to encourage any young person thinking about it to give it a go. You might meet a best friend, you might have a career in the ADF and you might have some good fun along the way.

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