Page 2068 - Week 07 - Thursday, 24 June 2021
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Research also shows us that young people are increasingly utilising digital tools to organise and participate in our society. It would be great if our hardworking and highly skilled education unit right here at the Assembly was resourced more generously to deliver high-quality and modern education to our young people that reflects the way that they engage in politics.
We need to support our teachers to provide opportunities to educate our students and to make it easy for them to build the confidence of teachers to teach in this area. It is essential to build the confidence of young people to contribute to our society by involving them in our political systems and processes.
Earlier this year, my office was lucky enough to meet with Lucy Stronach, the current Australian youth representative to the United Nations. Lucy is travelling around Australia this year to identify the needs and experiences of diverse and under-represented young people before she reports back to the Australian government and to the United Nations. We talked about the experiences of LGBTQIA+ young people, young people who have experienced family violence, youth homelessness and young people’s participation in politics and Australian democracy.
A 2019 report card on children’s rights in Australia published by the Australian Human Rights Commission found that Australians under the age of 18 felt that they have no voice in society. Lucy’s work is one really important way of capturing the voices and experiences of young people in all their diversity, and I look forward to welcoming her back to the Assembly later this year to present to all of us on her findings. This is not about a meet and greet with “the youth”; it is about young people being an active and engaged part of political processes, so that they are heard, represented and can seek justice on the issues that they care about.
Young people are a diverse social group, and they experience the complexities and challenges of our economic and political systems. Young people pay taxes when they work and they spend their money. They shape our education systems. They can apply for jobs in the military. They make medical decisions about their own bodies. They can be carers for their family. Including these people in our democratic systems is an essential part of making these systems robust and reflective of the diversity of our city. This motion goes some way to ensuring that inclusion, but there is more to do.
Young people over 16 should have the right to vote. The politics of lowering the voting age were first introduced to the Assembly in 1996. We have been talking about young people in democracy in this place for 25 years now. With the serious existential crisis that young people are now facing, now is the time to ensure that they are allowed to engage in this way.
We believe that engaging young people in participatory democracy such as protests and demonstrations increases their knowledge, understanding and capacity to participate. This is necessary, as we know our young people need to be engaged. They are the future. Young people are not just citizens of the future; they are citizens right now and providing young people with the means and rights to practise this citizenship is about building an inclusive society.
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