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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 5 Hansard (8 May) . . Page.. 1692 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

In primary school, that took the form of discussion of bullying. Talking about serious mental health issues, the number of young people who have been exposed to friends who have been considering suicide or who have considered it themselves is very disturbing. Drugs, substance abuse and sexuality are definitely issues for young people, as are their place in society and how they are not involved in or listened to when it comes to the structures in which they have to exist -in this case, schools.

That is what came clearly from the young people. It is very important for us to take note of what these young people said. Governments of both persuasions, Labor and Liberal, are always saying that they recognise it is important to listen to young people. They have youth advisory bodies and make attempts to consult with young people. But they are not comprehensive attempts; they are not reaching a lot of young people, particularly young people who are marginalised in any way. However, the overall commitment is there from governments of both persuasions.

It is not acceptable, when there is a clear message on a particular issue from young people, that those same governments say, "We would like to listen to young people, but we do not like what they're saying; so we won't listen to them on that subject."That has happened in areas which are contentious and challenging to the adult world.

On the question of physical fitness, obesity was addressed in some detail. Members are aware already of the issues; they are always being discussed. The question is: how to address poor diet and lack of exercise? We made a number of recommendations that deal with that.

There's a contentious one. Mr Stefaniak was on 2CC again, misrepresenting again what the committee or I had said. I am not going to waste taxpayers' money on getting the transcript so that I can respond. Mr Stefaniak was under the mistaken impression that this committee did not support there being competition in physical activity in schools. That is not correct. What the committee actually said was:

The Department of Youth and Family Services assist schools to collaborate with community organisations to provide physical activities that focus on fun, not just competitive sports, particularly where schools do not have a dedicated physical education teacher.

The committee was not saying that we should eliminate competitive sports. What came through very clearly from the young people-and it is obvious-is that it is not useful to have only a competitive option when it comes to physical exercise in schools. Many children do not want to play competitive sport, because they can feel a sense of failure if they are not good at it. So, we need to provide options for young people, as we do for adults, in terms of physical exercise.

There is quite a lot of evidence in the report to support this position and the fact that we can have a win-win here. Mr Stefaniak does not have to get upset about this. He can still have his competitive sport; we are just saying we would like to see other options there as well. Another thing Mr Stefaniak is sensitive about is the fitness testing question; I know he is very supportive of it. After receiving evidence, the committee expressed caution

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