Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Saturday, I was honoured to be asked to be a mentor at the Inspire Youth Forum in my electorate of Fisher. This forum is a valuable initiative of Sunshine Coast entrepreneur Vickie Magic which aims to inspire local young people to be happy and successful, and to help them develop critical life skills. More than 200 young people aged between 12 and 27 heard from Vickie herself on achieving success and happiness, from Amy Ratcliffe from McGrath Estate Agents on building self-esteem, and Blase Grinner of Experientia on bringing energy to all you do—and he certainly did that. Dan Fox of Fox Finance taught important money management skills, while David Hendrey of Hendrey Chiropractic shared his view on how to say no to bullies. My friend Kim Morrison of Twenty8, Chris Turner of SunnyKids and Paula Gowland of Suncoast Cleaning Solutions inspired us all with talks about their own life journeys and the importance of fulfilling your own potential.

After each talk, the students on my table discussed the issues raised very thoughtfully and maturely, and showed again how much we can learn from the perspectives of our young Australians. I particularly enjoyed my friendly chats with Dominic and Derek Beaudequin from Siena Catholic College and their mum, Denise. The young people of Fisher are fortunate to have this unique initiative, and I thank Vickie on behalf of our community for a wonderful event.