Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

LAXALE () (): I too am reading a few statements from young people within my electorate, on behalf of Raise Our Voice Australia. Its aim is to amplify diverse young voices 'to actively lead conversations in politics, domestic and foreign policy'. The first one is from Yuna Cho, who is a 14-year-old student from the Bennelong electorate:

I am one of the many lucky people living in this country being able to proudly call myself Australian despite my foreign heritage.

People from all around the globe are able to call Australia their home, and despite our accepting society, it would be an overstatement to say that everyone in our country is treated equally.

Racial prejudice is still apparent in our society.

Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people still have to deal with racism, and our migrants and refugees still fear their contribution to our larger community.

Australia is a socially developed country when it comes to multicultural diversity.

However, we can still achieve more. I wish to see Australia as a unified, patriotic nation.

I wish for our new Australian parliament to proudly represent our nation to become stronger and a more harmonious nation.

Every single Australian should be proud of our beautiful land, our people, our cultures, and our differences which makes us all unique yet unified at the same time.

The leaders of our country should show us what it means to be an Australian, and represent our country with pride.

I hope our new Australian parliament will help us build the country we all love.

The second speech is from Patrick, who is 19, works full time and lives in Bennelong:

Housing in this country is broken. Young people like myself are going to auctions only to find themselves outbid by someone who already owns two, three or four houses, meanwhile pushing up the price of housing and making it harder for young people like myself to enter the market.

Why is this happening?

A good place for the new parliament to start would be by examining the merits behind giving public money to people who are fortunate enough to already own multiple houses and using it as a tax dodge to write off the loss should they choose to invest by buying up further supply in the housing market.

As a result—the cost of rent and property values goes up and up and up, and one of the key things the new parliament could do would be to invest in nation building projects like public housing.

If we invested in public housing, we would not only create thousands of new jobs and opportunities for young people through apprenticeships, we would also help reduce inequality and crucially, bring down rates for everyone else …

It gives me great pleasure to read these two speeches on behalf of young people in my electorate. I encourage as many young people as possible to be engaged in politics and to reach out to their MPs. Maybe they too can have a speech read out here in parliament on their behalf. We don't necessarily have to agree with everyone, but a conversation is incredibly important. I thank Patrick and Yuna for their contribution in this parliament.

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