Page 2682 - Week 09 - Thursday, 9 August 1990
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skills and low self-esteem as also being disadvantaged. As I said, how that can happen after 10 or 12 years of schooling is beyond sense. Perhaps I can finish with Mr Collaery's report where he mentions we are going beyond the rhetoric. Perhaps, I would think, one could add a "not" in there and say, "we are not going beyond the rhetoric", and we will not do so until we address the problems which really need to be addressed.
MR JENSEN (12.05): Mr Acting Speaker, I will be brief because I know my colleague the Deputy Chief Minister wants to make some remarks to close this debate today. Like my colleague Ms Maher I deplore attempts by some sections of the media to sensationalise the issue of youth problems, particularly what we have seen recently. For example, they seek to portray some of our young people as members of a heavy metal music inspired cult involved in a crime wave within Tuggeranong.
Some of these issues that have been raised in the media have really caused problems for the young people. They can only result in causing divisions between youth, adults and authority.
Mr Connolly: That is what Wayne said eight weeks ago.
MR JENSEN: It is still going on, I can assure you. It is not something that dies; it will continue while these sorts of activities take place. I think it is appropriate for members to make these sorts of comments at the time and during the process that takes place. As I have said, I have attended a number of meetings recently where the young people of Tuggeranong were given an opportunity to put their point of view to the community. What came across in those forums was a need for adults to listen to the views of young people rather than tell them what to do. Too often I think young people of today find themselves being told what to do. All they wish is to be heard; and to have their point of view listened to by people in authority - be they parents, be they the police or be they members of the teaching profession.
It is important for this dialogue to be established between young people and those who are older than them. This is particularly important when young people find themselves in conflict with authority. As I have already indicated, this can be parental authority as well as official authority - police and teachers. I went to a meeting this week where a young student of a college indicated to me that what she found was the difficulty in relating to the teachers was the fact that some teachers were not prepared to listen to the views of the children. Other teachers were, and they were teachers that were able to get the message across to their students. It turned out that in this particular case the student saw no point in continuing with a particular educational program because the teacher was just not interested in what she was saying. However, another teacher was not that way inclined and she was able to
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