Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Fowler for his motion and I concur with it in its entirety. Education is the bedrock of our society and, if we want to continue to grow and build our society, education is a key component of that. The Forde electorate is very fortunate to be home to a great many primary, tertiary and higher education institutions. As I just noted, education is an integral part of our society. It has become a necessity for young people to complete their high school education in order for them to be equipped with the skills and education levels needed to compete in today’s competitive employment market. Along with that is the necessity to be technologically competent.

The Forde electorate comprises the Gold Coast and Ipswich regions. Unfortunately, these regions currently record higher unemployment rates than the national average, currently running at about seven per cent in the Ipswich-Logan region and about six per cent in the Gold Coast region. Even more concerning is youth unemployment. Currently, that is running at about 13.4 per cent, compared to the national average of around 11.7 per cent. The region has also recorded a sharp increase in unemployment over the last couple of years. I was talking to a local business recently where, in the last 18 months, they have laid off 20 per cent of their workforce due to business conditions.

Years 10 to 12 are really important years for high school students in terms of keeping those students engaged in education and pushing that retention rate up from the current level of approximately 76 per cent. I wish to encourage the continuing efforts to push that up to 90 per cent because those students, particularly those living in some of the underprivileged areas, will greatly benefit from that. It will significantly help their future employment opportunities and will give us the opportunity of seeing a reduction in some of those high youth unemployment figures that we see.

In conjunction with that, though, is the necessity, where possible, to encourage local businesses to give priority to employing local youth. Currently, business conditions are very difficult in the south-east corner of Queensland. I mentioned previously a business having laid off 25 per cent of its workforce. It is one of many businesses that are struggling. But there is some good news on the horizon. We have two fantastic initiatives within our community: the Junior Chamber of Commerce in Beenleigh and a new Junior Chamber of Commerce which is being established in Upper Coomera. These programs have been embraced by both the young people and the business community, who are eager to support each other and learn from each other’s experience and expertise. This opens further opportunities for these young people to gain employment. I had the pleasure of addressing the Beenleigh Junior Chamber of Commerce last week at their breakfast. There were approximately 60 students in the room, which I thought was a fantastic turnout and a great testament to the success of that program.

Other benefits include the ability of high school students to interact with fellow students from different schools, who have different things occurring at their school, so they are able to share those experiences and those ideas. The chambers of commerce aid young people by giving them the experience and allowing them to participate in a structured and democratic organisation. They also aid in building community capacity in these fast-growing regions. Certainly, my electorate is one of the fastest growing in the state of Queensland. These organisations also help identify youth issues, and the youth, rather than relying on other people to solve their problems, can work together to solve those problems within their community.

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