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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 4 Hansard (2 April) . . Page.. 1299 ..

MS GALLAGHER (continuing):

Council, a youth consultation register, issue-based forums which are being run by the Ministerial Youth Council, and online consultation opportunities.

The consultation register currently has 145 members, comprising 96 young women and 49 young men, and this number is increasing all the time. Members of this register receive regular information on a range of activities and relevant government and community events. The Ministerial Youth Council is a large council with diverse representation between the years of 12 and 25 and its members have met 12 times since their appointment in August 2002, which indicates high levels of commitment and a busy work agenda. Certainly, I acknowledged that when I met with the Ministerial Youth Council last month. The tasks they have chosen to take on and the commitment they are showing are being undertaken on top of work, school, university and study-you name it, they are doing it on top of that. The government really appreciates their commitment and the time that they devote in advising me on issues affecting youth.

The council hosted the inaugural Youth InterACT conference, entitled "Exploring ideas, shaping directions", on 18 and 19 October last year, with 110 people aged between 12 and 25 being in attendance. Three themes emerged from the conference-easy access, youth to youth, and awareness. Under the easy access theme, conference participants identified a need for improved information products and strategies to inform young people about the variety of services available in the community.

With the youth to youth theme, young people requested greater involvement in the planning and development of activities that concern them and support for peer support and young people as educators. Under the awareness theme, young people expressed a desire to inform and change negative perceptions of young people in the community and profile young people in their achievements. The conferences report was distributed widely in December. I have been discussing the conference outcome with the youth council and look forward to assisting them to progress these key areas over the coming months.

Members may be aware that Youth Week will take place from 5 to 13 April this year. I think that has been covered before. The ACT will be marking Youth Week with a range of events that will enable young people to share ideas, have a voice on issues of concern to them and showcase their talents and abilities. We will also announce the winner of the 2003 young Canberra citizen of the year award. The theme of National Youth Week is to celebrate and recognise the value of all young Australians to their community. I am sure that you will all agree that this sentiment should apply equally to the other 51 weeks of the year.

In conclusion, Youth Week is also a time for us to remember the youth that we do not connect with, for one reason or another, the youth that choose not to participate in government support programs, in school and in work and the difficulties those young people face and the difficulties that we have as policy makers and legislators in looking at ways that we can reach those young people. We will never reach some of them, but I am sure that we can do a bit better in trying to reach some of those young people who face disadvantage for a variety of reasons and support them through those troubled years so that they can fulfil their dreams and aspirations in adulthood.

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