Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Mental Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm delighted today to read out the speeches of two entrants in the Raise Our Voice initiative from my electorate of Flinders.

Matilda, who is 14 years old, from Padua College in Tyabb, says:

I write to you today as a young person in Australia, with concern for our education system. Over my two years at high school I have noticed time and time again that the modern classroom is only built for one type of student, someone who can easily focus in large groups or noisy classrooms, however this is not the case for over 570,000 students who suffer with neurological disorders such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dysgraphia and more, for majority of these students they have an extremely hard time remaining on task or focused when in loud classroom settings resulting in them not getting all the work completed and having piles of home work.

Furthermore, common issues with these disorders include zoning out even when your teacher is in the middle of explaining the task or concept, which results in the student being unable to complete the task and having to rely on his or her peers to get the relevant information, as unfortunately, the teacher cannot cater to everyone. This is not good enough.

I strongly believe some of these circumstances could be mitigated through better government funding for schools, higher pay for teachers and smaller class sizes.

I now go to a speech from Cooper, who is 16 years old, from Padua College at the Mornington campus, who, I am thrilled to say, is in the audience today with his mum and his sister. He writes:

We are in the midst of a crisis. Young people are facing a crisis. I'm Cooper, a 16-year-old from the electorate of Flinders. And I know that young people today are facing a serious mental health crisis.

These issues cannot be ignored any longer. We cannot pretend that they simply don't exist. If this parliament doesn't act now, we risk the lives of thousands of young people. If this parliament doesn't act now, we risk losing our next Olympians, our next doctors, our next ministers. My question is: if we can see the issue, why can't you? If we can see what needs to be done, why can't you?

Our parliament needs to invest further in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of young people. Whilst there are policies in place already, these are quite simply not good enough. We need this government to invest in better mental health education for both young people and adults, lower wait times for online and over the phone crisis support, and more youth advisory groups to shape Australia in terms of mental health.

These actions cannot wait. We need this to happen now. This is not about just feelings, this is about the lives of your fellow Australians. So please, I call on this government to make change and invest now in the mental health of young people in order to make Australia a better place for all not just today, but also tomorrow.

Thank you, Cooper and your family, for joining me here in parliament today. It brings these words to life would have such a critical program—the Raise Our Voices program—so that you can come here and express your views directly to the Australian people. What a joy and an honour for me—for all of us—to have you and your family here.

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

I love meeting with and hearing from young people in my community, as all of us in this place do. They remind us why the work we do matters, because it's all about building a better future for them. Today I'd like to deliver the words of two outstanding young people in my electorate: Kayla, who took part in the Raise Our Voices campaign, and Bailey, a high school student who joined me for work experience.

Kayla said in her speech:

I believe the government should create a new school subject that teaches real life skills like managing ourselves, money, and relationships.

First, managing ourselves. Knowing facts is great, but it won't help if we can't manage stress or bounce back from failure.

This skill helps us build good habits like going to bed on time, staying calm, and doing the right thing even when we don't feel like it.

It helps us take control of our time, our thoughts, and our actions which affects everything we do in life.

Next, managing money. We all need to learn how to budget, save, and spend wisely.

My dad is a financial planner, and he's told me many stories of adults who feel stressed because they never learned this in school.

Finally, managing relationships.

This means understanding others, working in teams, and handling conflict calmly.

Skills like communication and empathy are just as important as maths and English.

If we learned these life skills early … we'd be more confident, capable, and ready for the real world.

Let's not just learn facts, let's learn how to live.

That's how we build a better tomorrow for young Australians.

I agree.

Bailey, during his time in my office, also reflected on what it is like growing up in Australia today. He said:

Growing up in Australia right now feels like standing on the edge of something huge. I'm still a teenager, but I can already see how tough things are going to be as I get older.

Between school pressure, social media and trying to figure out where I want to go in my life, it's easy to feel overwhelmed.

There's this constant pressure to succeed, to look perfect, to know exactly what you want to do with your life—I'm still figuring it out and that should be okay.

But it doesn't always feel like it is.

I also worry a lot about the world I'm growing up in—climate change is a real problem.

It feels like my generation is expected to fix everything, but we don't even know where to begin.

Young Australians like Kayla and Bailey inspire me to work harder. They're smart, compassionate and determined to shape a fairer future and a kinder Australia. We need to offer them hope as parliamentarians.