Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to recognise Rebecca Brown, a young woman from my electorate who is in Canberra this week taking part in the National Indigenous Youth Parliament. The youth parliament is a week-long leadership program for 50 Indigenous Australians aged 16 to 25. The youth parliamentarians will learn how government works and how laws are made and will practise public speaking and how to engage the media.

Rebecca is a Worimi woman, originally from Forster, but now a Novocastrian, living and working on the lands of the Awabakal people. She is a project officer with the New South Wales Department of Family and Community Services, working with Ageing, Disability and Home Care, and has developed and coordinated the Hunter region's first cadetship program for Aboriginal early childhood students with the University of Newcastle.

I met with Rebecca earlier this month in Newcastle and discussed her goals and aims of participating in the program. Employment and education opportunities are high on Rebecca's agenda for debate, but a major focus for her is on using her experiences to help build leadership skills in our community and to encourage higher participation of Indigenous people in leadership roles and government.

Perhaps it is time to reconsider dedicated Indigenous representation. It has, after all, been a feature of the New Zealand parliament for more than 150 years. I look forward to following the deliberations of the National Indigenous Youth Parliament this week and the work of Rebecca Brown in particular.