Barbara Pocock (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I am honoured to deliver a speech today written by two young South Australians, Abel and Mitchell, as part of the Raise Our Voice campaign in parliament. They say:

To the Honourable Members of Parliament,

It is important for us young people to be able to speak up about things that concern us and what we would like to see happen to improve our living and wellbeing in Australia.

We think that the young people from around Australia should have the chance to have a place where they can call home.

Many of us are going to find it hard to afford this.

The cost of living is going up and our parents can't help us to get a deposit for a house because they are finding it hard to pay for all the living cost.

It will take us years to save up for a house deposit because we have to pay really high rents.

So, we are suggesting you could make houses and create loans so we can borrow money without high interest rates and slowly pay it back to the government.

Then we would be able to live the dream of having our own house.

All we are asking is to make some small houses to help those who don't have enough money.

Thank you for listening to our voice.

Thank you, Abel and Mitchell, for your thoughts. You are absolutely right. You deserve a roof over your head, and it shouldn't rely on your parents having to go without to help you to do it. Your solutions to build more homes are right on target. They will work; they have worked before. We could cap rents so you have a shot at saving towards that deposit you will need. You've named the problems well. There are solutions there. Thanks so much for bringing your ideas to the parliament.