Page 2066 - Week 07 - Thursday, 24 June 2021
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through the School Strike 4 Climate movement which has seen over 350 000 Australians leave work and school to support action on climate change; and
(3) calls on the ACT Government to:
(a) give effect to an ongoing policy of support for teachers and schools to allow for students to attend organised peaceful protests or demonstrations that accord with standard ACT Government policies around the management of peaceful protest;
(b) consider strengthening support to Elections ACT and the ACT Legislative Assembly education offices to support teachers to offer increased civics and democracy education for ACT school students; and
(c) provide a copy of this motion to the Education Directorate and instruct them to ensure that, consistent with the Australian curriculum and the Australian Education Act 2013 (Cth), public schools should provide all students with an understanding of, and ability to participate in, civil society and democratic processes.
I proudly rise today to speak to the motion in my name that supports the active participation in decision-making of young Canberrans. The ACT Greens believe in empowering the next generation to be involved in the decisions that will impact them. We believe that in a healthy democracy young people should be supported to be engaged and active public citizens. The ACT Greens believe that the views and interests of young people must be given the same weight when it comes to the decisions that will affect their futures.
This motion secures support for students to participate in peaceful protest by fulfilling the promises we made to them during last year’s election campaign: to support their right to strike from school and strengthen civics and democracy education. I am proud to continue the important conversation about young people’s representation in our democracy, a conversation which the ACT Greens have been having in this Assembly since 1996—when I was just five years old.
Young people are immensely diverse and active participants in our democracy and public institutions. The ACT Greens know that it is a matter of social, economic and environmental justice that their voices and votes should be represented in our parliaments and in civil society.
Supporting youth democracy is an issue close to my heart, both as the youngest member of this Assembly and as someone whose political career began when I was just 15 years old. In 2006, when I was in year 9, my peers and I were forced to protest the closure of our local school. As this Assembly now knows well, I was a student at the former Kambah High School when the then Stanhope Labor majority government proposed the closure of 39 ACT public schools, including mine. I organised protests, spoke with politicians and engaged my fellow students about the impact of the proposed closure on my school and the local community.
This experience significantly altered the course of my life and led me to understand the role of peaceful protest and community action in changing the lives of people like
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