Page 3495 - Week 11 - Thursday, 14 October 1993
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Youth Centres
MS SZUTY: Madam Speaker, my question without notice is to the Chief Minister, Ms Follett, in her capacity as Minister for youth affairs. I have been aware of comments over some time that Canberra's youth centres do not appeal to young people from non-English-speaking backgrounds. In the Migrant Resource Centre's annual report of this year the coordinator stated in her report:
... peer pressure to conform often makes youth centres a negative influence on young non-English-speaking background migrants.
She went on to say:
... if multiculturalism were to foster the best in all cultures, a centre for young people of non-English-speaking backgrounds must be established to support non-English-speaking background young people's cultural identity free from mainstream peer pressure.
My question to the Chief Minister is this: What is your view about the establishment of a youth centre for non-English-speaking background young people? Do you believe that youth centres could do more to encourage non-English-speaking background young people to participate in their activities?
MS FOLLETT: I thank Ms Szuty for the question, Madam Speaker. The question of a youth centre for young people from non-English-speaking cultures is not one which the Government has considered. The report that Ms Szuty has referred to is the first time that I have heard such a proposal raised. The Government's main approach to assist young people from non-English-speaking cultures has been by way of the report which was commissioned and released about a year ago, I think, called "The Too Hard Basket", which particularly addressed the difficulties and the barriers in accessing community services and facilities that are experienced by young people from non-English-speaking cultures. In looking at this report the Government initially was of the view that we would want to get a community organisation to contract for the implementation of that report. In the event, after advertising, we were not successful in getting such an organisation to come forward. The work will now be undertaken within the administration. That exercise of looking for a community organisation has delayed implementation of the report.
Madam Speaker, I believe that we are now in a position where we can move forward with that report. I think it is a very thorough and comprehensive report, and it does identify a large number of barriers - cultural barriers, physical barriers and so on - for young people in our community. It is particularly relevant, I think, for young people from some of the more recent migrant groups, refugees, for instance, and people from eastern countries as well. If as a result of our implementation effort on that report the idea of a separate youth centre should arise, that is probably the time at which the Government would consider it. At the moment I would have some worries about setting up a youth centre, as Ms Szuty commented, free from mainstream influences. I think that it would be far better to ease the passage of these young people to the full range of existing community services and facilities. That is the approach that we are taking.
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