Page 1189 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 9 April 2008
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making and taking part in discussions about youth issues around the city. I think we have got it right. We have got fantastic co-chairs in Kristy and Reece, who are managing the youth council. It is the first time we have had co-chairs, but it appears to be working.
We have got some very young people on the council—I think as young as 12—and we have got a young person with a disability. We have got a young Aboriginal man on the council now. We have got a good gender balance—a range of very excited and interested young people. When you attend one of the Youth Advisory Council meetings you do get the sense that we will all be in good hands when that generation takes over from us in years to come.
The Youth Advisory Council organised the youth interACT conference this year, which Ms Porter, Dr Foskey and I attended last Friday. It was a fantastic opening of the conference. There were over 200 people there, I believe. It was over at the Ainslie Arts Centre, and it was packed. They had some great games for us all to play, including blowing up balloons and writing on toilet paper. It was a great way of getting everyone involved in what the whole conference was about, which was to generate ideas—it was actually called Generate 08—and take part in decisions that affect young people in the city.
The Youth Advisory Council provides advice to me on a range of matters relating to young people in the ACT. They will provide me with feedback and a report on the youth interACT conference. They provided me with that report last year and we took their advice and actually made some changes based on that advice. That advice dealt with safety in the city and improving public transport and also about facilities and recreation, particularly recreational facilities for young people. Again, we will be holding a recreational summit to look at how we can better meet the needs of young people in the ACT.
I have referred Mrs Burke’s tattooing and body piercing bill to the Youth Advisory Council for their advice to me before the government makes a decision on our position. I have also referred the extending the school leaving age proposal to the Youth Advisory Council because it is important that we actually take seriously the views of young people. That is what the council is for, and I look forward to their advice on both of those areas.
The show bags this year did not cause any political outrage, I do not think. I had a quick look in them but they did not have any outrageous union material such as that which caused discomfort for Mr Seselja last year. The outrageous “your rights at work” badges, I think, or stickers, were not in there this year. Maybe that is because they made the impact they wanted last year; they got the result they wanted last year.
I think the broader issue here about dictating what young people put in that material was significant, and it is a matter that I raised with the Youth Advisory Council post Mr Seselja’s concerns around the “your rights at work” material appearing in that show bag. So I went back and asked them why they decided to put it in there. They were pretty clear that they felt rights at work was a matter of significant interest for young people post Work Choices and they had arranged for a wide variety of speakers
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