Page 3680 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 20 October 1993
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progress to an independent adulthood. Considerable effort needs to be put into achieving this particular objective, as it deserves our highest consideration. The justice area also states the need for young people to be able to participate in the legal process, to be aware of their rights, and to be treated justly when they come into contact with the criminal justice system.
All the objectives, on my reading of this policy, are achievable and realistic, and attach values to policy affecting young people. We are achieving much in the programs which have been put in place in the past. In conjunction with the States, I feel that we must move forward from here, not bringing about a lowest common denominator of service provision as a result of all States and Territories adopting this policy position. It is important that we achieve from this process the highest standard of services and outcomes for young people. Mr Deputy Speaker, I encourage the ACT Government to lead by example, and to bring the principles and objectives of the youth policy into all areas of government policy-making.
MRS GRASSBY (4.00): Mr Deputy Speaker, I believe that the national youth policy is a significant advancement in public policy which seeks to improve and better coordinate the delivery of services to young people. After all, Mr Deputy Speaker, our young people are our future. For the first time the State, Territory and Commonwealth youth Ministers came together to support a holistic policy framework to effectively address the diverse needs of young people and their requirements for government services.
I think it is important to mention some of these areas where principles and objectives have been agreed upon nationally. Two of the most important areas of interest and concern to young people are education and employment. We all know, Mr Deputy Speaker, that without a good education it is very difficult to get employment these days. They want to have access to quality education and training, but they also want this education to be relevant and flexible. Not all people want to go on to university. Today many people want to have a trade. So it is not just education at a university; it is education at a TAFE college.
As we have all learnt recently from some of the figures that have come out of our own TAFE college, more people go on to jobs after a TAFE education than after a university education. It takes longer for a person with a university education to find a job than it does for somebody from a TAFE college. I believe that education reforms over the last decade by the Federal Government, which include credit transfer arrangements in higher education and more flexible delivery of education through articulation arrangements, are quite positive. It is also great to see our own Canberra Institute of Technology being a more flexible and relevant provider of education and training. These more flexible arrangements significantly improve the ability of young people to further their education and to enhance their job prospects.
Mr Deputy Speaker, it is a truism that employment prospects are very much related to educational attainment and training. I think a lot has been done by governments of all political persuasions over the last decade to raise levels of educational attainment and training. We need to think very much about our young people. As I said earlier, Mr Deputy Speaker, our young people are our future. They are the ones who will carry on after we have gone. Therefore, we have to think of their place in our society.
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