Sally Sitou (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

TOU () (): On the weekend we celebrated World Children's Day, UNICEF's annual day of action for children by children—and what a powerful day to mark. In the six months I have been a member of parliament, I've had the opportunity to meet so many children and young people who have inspired me.

A couple of weeks ago I received the most wonderful invitation from the students at St Joseph's Catholic Primary School in Enfield. They invited me to be the guest judge at their public speaking competition. Students from kindergarten right through to year 6 took part, and they showed bravery, creativity and lots of humour. I would like to read a short excerpt from the speech by Layla, the winner for stage 3:

Together as a society we came together to fight the common enemy that was a large spherical mass with protruding red spikes. It was plastered across the world, television and the internet—Covid.

Many would argue that this global pandemic made us remote from the world. Curfews, lockdowns and restrictions made us all feel alone and isolated. However, it has actually brought us closer with the people who are most important. Our family. In the rat race of life where many families are rushing to go to school or work people often don't get a chance to enjoy the presence of the people around them. However covid forced everyone to stop and become closer with their family.

We all acted as one, putting aside differences to eliminate our common enemy.. covid. Regardless of those differences…. Race, religion, and culture we all came together in solidarity.

Fear, panic, distance, isolation, loneliness, lockdowns restrictions. For many people these are all synonymous with covid, however it's a matter of perspective. Solidarity, empathy, unity, family, memories, together.. all of these are really the symptoms of covid… close.

What I love about her speech was the incredible insight she showed. It would have been easy for her to list the many challenges of the pandemic, but instead she impressed me with her ability to articulate the lessons that we can learn from the pandemic. I want to thank all of the staff at St Joseph's Catholic Primary School for running this wonderful competition. Huge congratulations to Phoebe, Simon, John-Paul, Lily, Lauren, Christian, Ella, Dina, Mary and Layla for their wonderful speeches.

School visits have been one of my favourite parts of my role. I've had the opportunity to meet amazing students, including student leaders from James Ruse Agricultural High School who started up Each for Equal, a student club advocating for greater gender equality.

I want to congratulate 15-year-old Anhaar Kareem for being chosen to be on the government's Youth Steering Committee. She said she put her hand up for the committee because she wanted to ensure young people from diverse backgrounds were better represented.

Whenever I meet with young people, it is clear to me that they are engaged, they are listening and they are passionate, and they have strong views and opinions about what we are doing to impact the society they will inherit. Safeguarding their futures is important to me, and it's what drives me in this place.

It's impossible to talk about young people without referring to climate change. According to the 2019 Australian Election Study, half of 18- to 24-year-old voters surveyed identified the environment as their top issue in the election. The forecasts and predictions on our climate are dire and getting worse, so this government is putting in the hard work to ensure we are addressing climate change. We have enshrined Australia's emissions reduction target of 43 per cent and net-zero emissions by 2050 in legislation because we know we need to safeguard our planet for future generations. They are pushing us to do better, and we will, because we have to.