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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 4 Hansard (11 April) . . Page.. 1043 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

The outcome of these workshops, however, was not limited to a learning experience for those young people. By engaging with the needs and perspective of young people arguably at the bottom of the economic and social pecking order, they were able to uncover guidelines for more equitable planning and social policy.

In Dr de Oliveira's methods there was a strong focus on creative and artistic components. National Youth Week in Canberra this time around also celebrates youth creativity in quite a big way. The structure and regulations of our society, however, do not always encourage youth participation in creative and expressive environments.

Public transport can and should be subsidised to service major youth events. Changes could and should be made to licensing laws to encourage entertainment venues to support live music and to run events for young people of all ages. Tertiary education can and should be free.

In providing services that support young people in their role in the community and in regard to their health and wellbeing, there are areas of need that have been well established through committee inquiries of this place and in the exemplary work of the Youth Coalition of the ACT, among others.

Clearly, for young people who are carers we could offer more support. For those who live in poverty, live under threat of violence or abuse, or have substance abuse issues, resources can be better targeted and coordinated. Students are struggling to live in Australia with the sort of income support they get, or do not get.

The question of youth wages is also very important. The way the federal government is breaching young people who are on social support has brought about terrible situations for young people. In Canberra the requirement for community organisations to provide emergency relief has increased significantly.

Access to justice for young people is also important and will come up in this place through the committee inquiry that was announced today. Many needs have been identified. One of the measures of us in this parliament and of this Labor government will be how well we address these needs.

It is correct, as Mr Stefaniak said, that we have move-on powers here. My view on how effective or useful they are would be very different from the view put by Mr Stefaniak. We do not have proper data collection. Mr Stefaniak said that it has gone on without a problem over the last few years. For several years two gentlemen on the crossbench supported the government totally on this approach to social issues. I would suggest that that is why there has not been a lot of fuss about it in this place.

There have certainly been concerns about it in the broader community. In several debates in this place, I have asked that much better data be collected about how and when move-on powers are used and what the impact is. It is a discriminatory law in that it affects only young people, and to a large extent only young people of certain types. This is worthy of further discussion, and in this new Assembly I intend to get that discussion going again.

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