Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

One of the election commitments that I was most proud to secure was $5 million for a purpose built and co-designed youth engagement hub in Casuarina in the northern suburbs in my electorate. Youth offending has been an ongoing issue in my electorate in the Territory for many years. At its root it has complex reasons and causes. However, the NT government is working hard to tackle the problem from many sides. It's investing in diversion programs, in restorative justice programs and in establishing a new, purpose designed youth justice facility. I visited the kids the other day in the Don Dale facility, which is a former adult male prison and is not satisfactory for the purpose of caring for and getting our kids back on the right path. We had a youth shack in the northern suburbs in Casuarina, but the owner of that property sold it to McDonald's—because we need more of those, apparently!—and young people in Darwin have not had somewhere to go. So it is my number one priority to get somewhere for our kids to go: somewhere that's safe for them to go, because some kids can't go home, or it's not safe at home all the time; somewhere where they can have trusted adults mentoring them; and somewhere kids can hang out and have fun, develop their life skills, build their resilience, and get connected to positive pathways and any services that they need.

We've heard the concerns of Territorians and we're working to get that federal commitment of $5 million, get the facility co-designed and get it up and running as soon as possible. On Friday, along with NT youth minister Lauren Moss, we announced that a site has been chosen for the youth engagement hub. It's the old Casuarina fire station, which is a great location. Darwin Men's Shed is currently in that location, which is why I also got a $1 million commitment in the election to establish a brand-new Men's Shed for Darwin. So they will have a new shed and they'll move out of the Casuarina fire station. It's got some asbestos issues, so we'll flatten it and build a purpose built facility that has been co-designed with young people.

The importance of doing that co-design work should be clear to all. The kids need the input to make it as it attractive as possible and as helpful as possible for those kids. It was great to attend the Casuarina Senior College graduation on the weekend. I talked to their board, and their board is very excited about their kids having some input into making this youth engagement hub as good as possible. It's really important work. We need to support our kids and get behind them, and this federal Labor commitment will do exactly that.

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