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

I'd like to take a moment to share with the parliament a few of the voices of the young people in my electorate. Astrid raised with me issues of education: 'Imagine this. It's 2041 and Australia has one of the most equal education systems in the world. Australia is a place where a child's postcode, ethnicity or socioeconomics has no affect on their educational outcomes. We can create this future.' Jordan Spencer said, 'My vision for Australia in the next 20 years is that we'll have media outlets that report the news in a reliable, balanced and honest way.' Olivia Hedge, 13, raised with me: 'Australia is worth protecting. We only get one chance to protect it. Our iconic species are becoming extinct because of bushfires. Our corals are dying because of increased temperatures. We can be a country that saves our future and saves our future species.' Holly Sparrow, 17, raised with me: 'I believe that strength exists in our differences, rather than our similarities. As a nation, over the next 20 years we'll face many serious challenges and how we respond will define us. Australia is a wonderfully diverse and multicultural country. It is home to the oldest living culture in the world and currently three out of 10 Australians are born overseas. This is predicted to increase.' Finally, Ethan raised with me: 'I think Australia will be okay if everybody gets vaccinated, if everyone stays safe. If that happens, then we can get back to our norm lives—have fun with each other and go to friends' houses and go to parties.' Ethan, many of us agree with you, and we're getting to that stage.

I'm proud to say that in our part of the world vaccination rates are up over 95 per cent first dose and well on their way for second dose. We've done this because we've worked together, we've believed in the science and we've supported one another. Vaccines have been available in the last period, and there's no shortage of supply. It wasn't like that a while ago, but we're now there.

I 'd like to thank Ethan, Holly, Olivia, Jordan and Astrid for writing to me to share their experiences. It's important, as we start to open up and think of the future, that we think of the young people and how we can best represent them. These students have written to me and have raised the issues of the education, of diversity, of honesty in the media, of protecting our environment, of making sure that we respect one another and our multicultural history and, of course, of the pandemic and vaccines. These are young voices that reflect many of our own voices that we have in this place. I strongly urge the parliament to take on board their ideas when planning policy now and into the future.