Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about my concern—and the concern of parents and young people in the electorate of Petrie—about the perception in way too many current reports that our young people are hoons, louts, and selfish and materialistic. I respect the comments that have just been made by the member for Stirling, that from time to time, unfortunately, we do see behaviour that is unacceptable—although I think we, both in this chamber and out in the broader community, could all accept that bad behaviour is not limited to our young people from time to time. I want to clearly put forth my position that the proposition that the young people of today are materialistic, selfish and out for themselves and no-one else is fundamentally flawed. I have just spent the last 2½ weeks visiting 28 schools in my electorate, and I see nothing but inspiration from the students that I meet, both primary and secondary school students.

There are young boys in primary school who are getting motivated to join choirs and form boys groups, which I think is fantastic. At Aspley State School they have just formed their first boys choir, and I congratulate the young boys for their fantastic singing. One other school, Norris Road State School at Bracken Ridge, has just formed a young, all-boys dance group. They are now singing, dancing and performing for visiting people like me, and their first performance the other day was absolutely fantastic. I look forward to seeing many more of those events.

There are children who are doing so much in the broader community. One of my other schools, Mueller College, recently had the opportunity to take a team of 30 students and teachers over to Vanuatu. With them they took two tonnes of school equipment and resources—including textbooks, science experiment equipment and teaching resources—the money for which they had raised themselves. The students that they went to visit lived on two incredibly remote islands called Malakula and Ambae. The principal of one of the schools on these islands said that, in the 80 years that the school had been in operation, not once before had they had a visit from anyone, black or white. They also said they had never been provided with any kind of support like the kind they had received from Mueller College. The students from Mueller gave drama and music presentations to the schools, and they talked about behaviour, values and attitudes. For those students, it was a life-changing trip. I am sure it was for the students of Vanuatu as well. We now have 30 more students in our local community who really understand what is going on not only outside their local community but outside their own country and who understand what they can do to help.

As those students and many others have seen through their broader connections, whether it is through World Vision Australia or a whole range of groups out there, the smallest bit of assistance can help. That takes me to Everton Park State School, which recently had one of their teachers go over to Tanzania for a month. They helped fundraise for that teacher to take some resources over with her. The grade 2 and grade 7 students raised $850, and that bought an incredible number of textbooks and writing books for the students in Tanzania, who had never seen these sorts of resources provided before. In addition to that, the year 6 and year 7 students had just completed the 40 Hour Famine and raised $2,800 for World Vision. They have been doing this for the last three years. This is just a small sample of the fantastic efforts of our students.

Having said that, I certainly do not look at my community or the broader community with rose-coloured glasses and think that every student is a role model student who wants to go out and do volunteer work in the community and beyond. When I talk about our fantastic students, I am not talking about our duxes and those getting all the academic awards, who their parents and teachers and I are very, very proud of. These students are doing equally as well in other areas, and we need to acknowledge their fantastic efforts.

In saying that, like in many other areas of Australia, I have in my electorate young people who are unemployed, who are homeless, who are disengaged from the education system, who are suffering from drug and alcohol abuse or who are suffering from abuse themselves in the home. Instead of criticising these young people, who may turn to crime or to other activities that the general society considers are inappropriate, what we should be doing is looking to those young people as representatives in our community, in our society, and asking: ‘What is it that we can do to support these people? What can we do to help them identify their true potential?’ They all have a lot of potential, but they need self-esteem and they need support. If what they see is reports in the media and reports generally in the community saying, ‘The youth of today don’t care, they show no responsibility, they’re hoons, they’re louts,’ if we keep using this terminology to label our youth generally out there, then of course they are going to have difficulties in getting that self-esteem and confidence that they really need, especially those who are facing really difficult circumstances in our local community.

My speaking tonight has come about, again, from the inspiration of talking to a couple of senior students and the school captains at Craigslea State High School this year, who are very much immersed in exams at the moment. They just said they are tired of being labelled by society. They are tired of being labelled by the media. They do have hopes and dreams. They do want to achieve so much in society and want to contribute to society, and that is the way we should be looking at our youth of today. They have potential. We should not be judging them. We should be respecting them, supporting them, encouraging them in all that they want to do, truly listening to them and engaging with them.

That brings me to my final point, which is to say how immensely proud I am of the Hon. Kate Ellis, Minister for Youth, and this government for establishing the Australian Youth Forum. This Youth Forum is new. It is dynamic. It is well and truly needed. It is something that young Australians have been craving. They are grappling with so many pressures in our society. Whether we want to accept it or not, things have changed. We have our young people leaving school with phone plans and credit card debt, facing financial pressures. We have all seen financial pressures, as have our parents and our grandparents, but the youth of today are looking and asking: ‘Will we ever be able to afford a house? What can we do to look after the environment that is our future and that is for our own grandchildren? What are our job opportunities? What are our opportunities generally to move forward and to contribute?’ This Youth Forum really does give them a voice. It will foster national dialogue between young Australians and the government, and I am happy to say that I am doing my part in making sure that I am embracing that need for dialogue with my local students of all ages.

I take absolute pleasure in visiting my schools. These students really do have amazing ideals. When you hear grade 6 students sitting down discussing the merits of fossil fuel versus clean energy, you know that we have a lot of hope for the future, when these kids are our future. I would just like to thank the students and all of the youth in my electorate for contributing so much, and I look forward to continuing to have that dialogue with them and working for a better future for all.