Russell Matheson (Macarthur, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to talk about a brilliant young lady in my electorate of Macarthur who is about to embark on a four-week UN Youth Australia's Young Diplomats tour along with 15 other students from around Australia. Eighteen-year-old Danielle Santos of Mount Annan is one of 15 fortunate students who were selected out of 315 applicants from across Australia to visit nine countries in Europe.

Over four weeks and nine countries Danielle and her peers will meet and engage with key players in international diplomacy, from UN representatives, European politicians, diplomats, embassies and leading thinkers to NGOs and grassroots organisations. The group will also have the opportunity to immerse themselves in European culture, as well as visit monuments to World War II, such as Auschwitz in Germany, to gain a greater understanding of the evolution of international diplomacy in the 20th and 21st centuries. Danielle will explore the sites which shaped the world as we know it. She will chart the birth of modern democracy, the rise of the nation-state and the evolution of diplomacy to the current day. From the French Revolution to the fall of the Berlin Wall, Danielle and her peers will become acquainted with the big ideas and challenges that our world leaders have grappled with over the past 400 years.

Danielle has been attending UN youth events since 2013 and, by being part of this wonderful organisation, she has been able to grow her knowledge about the nature of international diplomacy. Not only will Danielle get to experience all that Europe has to offer; she will also be given the opportunity to develop her skills in public speaking, negotiating, debating and problem solving. For the two years that Danielle has been attending UN youth events she has competed in the state finals of the Premier's debating competition and was selected for the New South Wales delegation to Hobart in July this year. Danielle, at such a young age, is an upstanding member of the Macarthur community, for which she received the 2014 Junior Volunteer Macarthur Award.

Danielle has been involved in the Parliament House women's leadership seminar. She was a volunteer at the 2014 Macarthur Cystic Fibrosis Swimathon and the Global Young Leaders Conference in America, involved in the Starlight Room at Westmead Children's Hospital, and a guest speaker at the Macarthur Youth Mental Health Forum. Danielle is truly engaged and committed to the Macarthur community, those in need and the most vulnerable in our community. Danielle has given up her time to volunteer for so many worthy organisations to ensure that the needs and rights of local young people in Macarthur are upheld.

I sincerely wish Danielle all the very best during her travels in Europe and all future endeavours. I wish her well and look forward to seeing what challenge she decides to take on next. Danielle is a brilliant young person who certainly has a great future. At such a young age she has made a significant contribution to the community in which she lives.

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