Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

D () (): It's my privilege today to raise the voices of young people from my electorate of Chisholm as part of the Raise Our Voice Youth Voice in Parliament week event. Thank you to everyone in my electorate who submitted speeches. They were all excellent, but unfortunately, I can only read two today.

It's an absolute honour to be able to read speeches by Ayanna Singh, 15, and by Daniel Gao and David Wu, aged 18, who wrote a speech together. I am so proud of these young people, and it really is an absolute privilege to read their speeches in this place. First from Ayanna:

Harassment in the workplace is becoming more frequent every single day.

Statistics ranging from 2016—2021 recorded that 2 in 5 women and 1 in 4 men have reported experiencing sexual harassment in the workplace.

It's not the staggering figures that appal me, but the lack of action being taken.

Of the number of incidents that took place, 40% of it was witnessed, and even more shockingly, 69% of the cases have failed to be intervened by a witness.

To wrap your mind around the distressing figures, if 100 incidents took place, 40 cases were witnessed and 28 cases were not stopped by witnesses.

Of the victims who rightfully reported, 19% were labelled as troublemakers, 18% were victimised, ostracised or ignored and 17% resigned from their jobs.

These facts don't just anger me, but they disgust me.

This is why I want Australia's new parliament to lead the way for all the workplaces in the nation when it comes to sexual harassment. I want every person in the workplace (employer and employee) to obtain a 'conduct check' and undergo a course that goes through what to do in a scenario (whether you are the victim, perpetrator or a witness).

The 'conduct check', relies on the professional and appropriate relationship individuals have with their employers, colleagues and clients.

This is just the beginning. If we don't try to accomplish this now, the things that could occur will be anything but good.

Thank you, Ayanna.

Now to Daniel Gao and David Wu's speech:

To the new parliament: with each passing year, more young Australians are taking their own lives than ever before.

I ask that you promise me the day is soon to come, the day that suicide is no longer our leading cause of death in this country.

To the new parliament, hear my voice. Hear the cries of my peers who feel forced to answer 'yes' to 'are you okay?', who cannot muster the courage to ask for professional help.

To reach the struggling youth lost in the statistics, to support this family so dear to me through mental illness, early intervention initiatives must become priority and peer support education must become the first aid of mental health.

To the new parliament, hear our voice.

We dream of a support system whose services actively seek to detect and treat mental illness before it is too late.

We dream of becoming an educated community of youth who possess the knowledge and resources to support one another in times of hardship.

And we dream of an Australia where we can truly live, unimpeded by the mental health crisis that plagues our present.

Only with your support can our dream become reality.

Thank you to those young people who wrote their speeches. I will always do my best to stand up for you in our community.