Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to rise this afternoon to talk about an excellent function that I was able to host in my electorate office a little over a month ago. As part of an annual event that I host, I convened the Moncrieff youth forum. I invite young Australians in their senior year at school to come to my electorate office, sit down with me and talk about the issues that are very important to them. I wrote to all the high schools in my electorate and I am pleased that, this year, three high schools agreed to participate in the Moncrieff youth forum.

I am disappointed that more high schools have not taken up this invitation. Notwithstanding that, I am delighted that Nerang State High School, Emmanuel College and St Michael’s College have all decided to send representatives from their schools. The participants from Nerang State High School were David Kortooms and Toni Preece; from Emmanuel College, Dane Moores and Danae Bjorem; and, from St Michael’s College, Laura Hansford and James Clark.

I must say that I was very impressed with the quality and the calibre of these young Australians. Australians can feel assured that young people coming through our education system today most definitely have in their hearts the interests of ensuring that our nation continues to go from strength to strength. All the participants are involved in their communities. All the participants have an eye to ensuring that our communities become even better places. There is a strong emphasis on ensuring that Australian families can continue to remain strong, with a focus on ensuring that there are more opportunities in terms of work both and study for young Australians going forward.

At my Moncrieff Youth Forum we spoke about a variety of topics ranging from the ubiquitous schoolies week—which of course all young Australians are familiar with and which unfortunately or fortunately, depending on your perspective, has its home on the Gold Coast—through to other opportunities such as tourism development on the Gold Coast and the tourism and hospitality industry generally, which of course is the lifeblood of the Gold Coast local economy.

The six participants from their respective schools all demonstrated a high level of optimism about their future. Some were choosing to go on and study abroad, some were choosing to go to university, whilst others were assessing opportunities with respect to vocational trades. All, however, are proud young Australians, and I was pleased to provide them with the opportunity to put forward to me their points of view about what can make Australia an even stronger country into the future. I thank them for their participation and I congratulate the schools for raising such brilliant young people.

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! In accordance with the resolution agreed to in the House yesterday, the time for members’ statements has concluded.