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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 4 Hansard (2 April) . . Page.. 1289 ..

MS MacDONALD (continuing):

community groups. The Quamby Youth Detention Centre and the community unit also look after youth clients. The government provides practical assistance through support services for young people at risk. It is also contributing funds to Oz Help, a new support service for workers in the building and construction industry. I was privileged to be in attendance last week, Mr Speaker, when you launched that good program. The youth connection program and the adolescent day unit are other intensive support services for young people. But it is important not to overstress the number of young people in trouble. In fact, I am very proud of Canberra's young people, as I am sure are all in this place.

Highlights of the 2002-03 budget saw the Department of Education, Youth and Family Services undertake significant reviews, such as the inquiry into education funding, reviews of counselling services, schooling reporting, and careers advice. Other highlights saw class sizes progressively reduced, laptops provided for government school teachers, and government school IT infrastructure upgraded. The inaugural Youth InterACT conference, entitled "Exploring ideas, shaping directions", was held last October, and 105 people aged between 12 and 25 registered.

Delegates expressed enthusiasm for the concept, with one saying, "I think that we should definitely have another conference like this. Youth InterACT gives me a chance to express how I feel about where I live, and I'm glad to know that I can shape my future."As that shows, young people are engaged, active and concerned about their world. During the fires, they were helping to hose their homes and clear their gutters, and then do the same for their neighbours. Those who lived in safe areas were heading to the fires to help.

In fact, in my own instance, I had two young people trying to help out. One person tried to notify us and came over to help, as I have mentioned in this place already, and another young man willingly came over to our house and cleared out our gutters for us, which, as I have said before, is a good thing, because I do not know how I would have got up there and I do not know how Brendan would have got up there, either.

I do remember that in a speech after the fires Mr Cornwell noted as well the participation of the young people in Canberra and how they have done us all proud during the fires. Members of the Legislative Assembly may have been lucky enough to hear stories from some of these young people. The Canberra Times post-fire thank you notices were filled with mentions of many others. Mr Speaker, that is only one example of how young people get involved and participate in their community and help to shape our future and their own future.

More recently, thousands of young people took to the streets to protest about the war against Iraq. Their concern was extended beyond the local, beyond even the national, to people in the Middle East they have never met. We should admire their political interest and their engagement, whatever our own positions on the war may be. I certainly do, and I encourage them to keep up their active interest in politics and local, national and international issues into the future, to the time when they are no longer considered to be youth.

Youth issues are particularly relevant in Canberra, because our age profile is much lower than the national average. According to the executive summary of last year's youth in the

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