Page 1191 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 9 April 2008
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I thank Ms Porter for bringing the motion. I think it has given all Assembly members who wanted to talk the opportunity to raise issues of their own interest in relation to Youth Week, and that is certainly an important part of the Assembly’s role.
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella) (12.20): I would like to thank Ms Porter for bringing this motion to the Assembly as well. I want to add to the debate and touch on a program that is being run at the moment by Multicultural Youth Services. They have got a photo exhibition happening now on the top floor of the Civic library for the people involved within the service and the people that they have been helping, who are younger Australians that have come from other countries. They have been helping them get to know Canberra and how to get about in the ACT.
This photo exhibition will be there for a few days and it is worth while having a look at. The aim of the exhibition is to talk mainly about friendships—how these young people have got together and made friendships within the ACT. They have also got a video running over there, too, which goes back to the Multicultural Festival in 2006 and shows these young people interacting together with the Multicultural Youth Services group. I just wanted to touch on that and ask members, if they have an opportunity, to get over and have a look at that exhibition.
MS PORTER (Ginninderra) (12.21), in reply: I would like to thank all members for their contributions to the debate and for further highlighting the many services that the ACT government provides which are also provided by young people themselves and by non-government youth services and other non-government services. As a government we must always be aware that, whilst the majority of our young people are happy and achieving, there are some young people in our society that need our support and need targeted services to meet their needs.
Our young people are resilient and many young people volunteer regularly, not only to help to provide support for their peers but also to provide services to all sectors of our community. I note, for instance, a number of young people that regularly turn up at the tree planting events run by Greening Australia, and I note, too, the young people that participate in the arts and amateur theatre in this town, adding richly to the cultural life of our city.
But it is not just by those two examples, of course. It is through all those examples that we have heard about here this morning and the other ways in which our young people commit to service to their community. I would like to thank all those young people for their work and participation. I would like particularly to thank them for their work and their participation not only during Youth Week but also throughout the whole of the year.
Motion agreed to.
Sitting suspended from 12.23 to 2.30 pm.
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