Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Hansard source

'My age group isn't taken seriously when we report on a serious issue, and it pains me that we won't be taken seriously under a Scott Morrison government.' This is a quote from 19-year-old Jackson from New South Wales, a young Australian who has completed Labor's youth survey, asking young people about the barriers to communicating with the federal government and the issues that are important to them.

Young Australians are faced with a grim future, with predictions that this generation, generation Z, is at risk of being the first in our history that will be worse off than the generations that came before them. Nearly 2,000 young Australians have completed Labor's survey, telling us what matters to them. Like Jackson, many young Australians are feeling unheard and frustrated with the lack of pathways to communicate their ideas, their issues and their lived experience with this federal government. Twenty-one-year-old Haseeb from Western Australia summed it up by saying: 'Even when young people are given a platform, sometimes it's very artificial, and the concerns raised aren't elevated to a level where they can be addressed. It would be nice to see young people's concerns turn into actionable change and government discussion items.'

After sacrificing so much during COVID, this generation Z of young Australians will be paying for Scott Morrison's trillion dollars of debt. And what exactly are they getting in return? A future of high underemployment and underutilisation, depleted retirement savings, significant barriers to education and training, and a rent and housing affordability crisis. This government has sat on its hands for eight long years. They have failed young Australians at every juncture. They have failed to listen to young Australians. They have failed to even attempt to create a pathway of engagement for those bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 crisis and the future impacts of the decisions that are made now. As a result, the many programs that attempted assist young Australians have failed miserably because of this government's lack of ability to listen to young people.

For example, the government's record on youth unemployment programs is abysmal. The Youth Jobs PaTH program was introduced as a centrepiece policy to tackle youth unemployment just a few years ago, promising 120,000 internships over four years, but it's only managed to produce just over 14,000. Then came the $4 billion policy, a masterpiece to tackle unemployment in the form of the JobMaker hiring credit. The government promised to deliver 450,000 jobs with this program but managed to deliver just a thousand before the program was scrapped. These are just some examples of this government's failures with programs in youth unemployment.

You would think at some point that this government would see the need to say: 'Okay, we're getting it wrong. Maybe we should directly engage with young Australians about why these programs are failing so spectacularly.' The government now likes to boast that youth unemployment is down to pre-COVID levels, but prior to the pandemic youth unemployment rates were double the national average. This should not be the standard that government boasts about and wants to return to.

Of course, when it comes to poor engagement with young Australians, it all started with Tony Abbott cutting the minister for youth and the office for youth when the coalition took office in 2013. And we're still playing catch-up. A youth task force was introduced, and a report was due in December 2020, but the department has now told us that this task force no longer exists, and there's no report in sight. They're still consulting. I don't know what that means. This was just another marketing ploy by this government and not a genuine attempt for true engagement with young Australians.

Well, Labor's not going to wait for this government to get off their hands after eight long years and do something about it. Labor is committed to engaging with young Australians. That is why Labor has continued to listen to young Australians. We want to hear from you. Unlike the government, we do want to know what matters to you and, more importantly, what governments should be doing about these issues. I have continued to engage with young Australians, whether that be through our survey or our virtual youth forums with Labor's policymakers, where hundreds of young Australians joined Anthony Albanese and me to chat about everything from the environment to the economy, about stagnating wages, about properly funding TAFE, about the impost of increasing university fees and about how important it is to take action on climate change. Of course, it's young people that will bear the brunt and cost that comes with not acting on climate change.

Young Australians are engaging more than ever in politics, which is quite the opposite to the myth out there that young Australians are not engaging in politics; they are engaging in politics, and they want to have a say in what affects them. Young Australians are not just willing to be involved; they also have some solutions. This is from Mitch: 'As young people, we have a voice and we have an opinion. We are passionate and we care about issues that concern us. We have ideas and we want to change things but are constantly shown our voice is not important to people in power.' Isn't it disappointing that a young Australian feels that their government is not interested in what they've got to say? Jasmine said: 'Young people are let down by a system which fails to provide fundamental education on democracy and voting. We as young people represent 30 per cent of the votes. We are the future politicians and the future prime ministers of this nation, and it's crucial that our nation recognises gaps in a system that was not created with young people in mind.' And Bianca said: 'The youth voice is growing, and now it's as important as ever to be given space and opportunity to represent the nation as well as begin tackling the problems we will inherit.'

Whether it's Jackson, Hasib, Jaslyn, Bianca, Mitch or the thousands of other young Aussies we've heard from, we are listening to you, and we are not just going to wait for this government to act. As I said, we as the opposition have continued to engage with young people. But, importantly, if we are elected to government, an Albanese government are committed to introducing a new youth engagement model to provide a voice and a structure for young Australians to directly engage with government and contribute to policy development. We will establish a framework to directly and formally engage with young Australians on an ongoing basis. We will provide a platform for young Australians to share their ideas, opinions and concerns and to alert the government to issues facing young people at a grassroots level and to also be involved in the solutions to address them.

We will make sure that the systems are in place to support this framework by also committing, importantly, to an office for youth and a dedicated minister for youth. Gone will be the days where this is an add-on extra; this will be core to a Labor government. Rather than youth engagement and young people being an afterthought or duplicating functions across departments, we will have a dedicated unit within government to ensure that young people are properly engaged. Labor is committed to genuine ongoing two-way engagement with young Australians, ensuring that they have a voice in government. Importantly they will also be part of the solution-making in this country. To all the young Australians who took time to fill out our survey—and I would encourage people to continue to do this—thank you for sharing your ideas. We will continue to engage with you; that is our commitment.

I would like to finish with the words of a young Australian, Quintessa, who said: 'Young people seem to be constantly overlooked in policymaking and in budgets. We aren't even being addressed in speeches to the public. Despite being the group that will have to live with many of the policies and legislative changes being made today, we are slowly becoming more educated about our right to have a say in democracy, and you need to listen to us because your decisions impact us.' To Quintessa and every young Australian, I would like to say that I am listening to you and Labor is listening to you. I hear you. We hear you. We are committed to taking the necessary steps to make sure that you are no longer overlooked.

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