Page 420 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 20 February 2018
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We are already doing some of these things, but we should not rest on our laurels. The ACT Assembly’s education office plays an important role in this regard, bringing school student groups to the Assembly and facilitating work experience programs. I had a work experience student in my office last year and I have also engaged with visiting school groups that were learning about democracy in this place.
However, further steps could be taken to engage young people in the ACT. I know that many members in this place have been invited to participate in the advocate initiative this year. It is an initiative developed by the Foundation for Young Australians. It will engage young people in each electorate with their local MLAs. Advocate aims to recruit students by meeting with student representatives, with regular meetings held monthly throughout the year. Young people are chosen each year and provided with an opportunity to engage with their elected representatives on a year-long term. I think this is a great opportunity for us as members to genuinely engage with young people and the issues that they care about through an ongoing dialogue.
In conclusion, our government is committed to engaging broadly with the ACT community as we continue to deliver our election commitments for our growing city. We will continue to look at new ways of engaging with all people in the community, including working people, but particularly focusing on innovative engagement with young people to ensure all voices are heard. Young people have a particularly important stake in the future of our community and we must continue to explore new ways of engaging directly with them, both as a government and as a parliament. I look forward to hearing other members’ contributions today.
MR PARTON (Brindabella) (4.08): I rise to speak to this matter of public importance, and I thank my good friend Mr Steel for bringing it to us. It is no surprise to me that an MPI about engagement has come from Mr Steel’s office, because he is a genuinely engaging guy, and it is wonderful to be talking about it.
In regard to public engagement of all sections of the community, it is wonderful for this government to use all sorts of different methods of communication and wonderful that we are setting up different panels. I am buoyed by some of the things that I have heard from Mr Steel today about different ways to communicate. It is wonderful that we are creating apps, developing websites and tweeting and snapping away.
However, at the end of the day, if you are still trying to hide things from the public, if you are still trying to pull the wool over their eyes, if you are not genuinely consulting with the community but rather trying to be seen to be consulting, if there is a veil of secrecy over whatever you do, when you are still trying to thwart the most innocuous of FOI attempts and keep as many voters out of the loop as possible, it is not really worth much, is it? We on this side of the chamber watch with much interest, for argument’s sake, the housing choices process. We cannot help but think that there is very much a predetermined outcome there. But we still watch with interest.
My entire professional life has been based around engagement—engagement, information sharing and, dare I say, entertainment. I understand the ins and outs of
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