Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Today I'm proud to read the speeches of two young Warringah residents who entered speeches in the competition for the Raise Our Voice campaign as part of Youth Voice in Parliament Week. They were asked, 'What do you want your community to look like in the next 10 years, and what can the next parliament do to achieve it?' In some way, I'm very grateful to have these two speeches but I'm a little sad at the topics. The first one is from Zoe:

My name is Zoe, I'm 12 and my electorate is Warringah.

I want our community to be climate change free in 10 years. Today I will explain the very simple changes our Parliament can introduce to make this happen.

We use coal as a fuel to generate electricity for our homes and we don't even think about the damage to our environment. Every morning when you turn on the light do you even once think "Do I need this, or should I just open the curtains?"

We need to educate people! Open the curtains and think about renewable power.

Coal causes 0.3 of each degree in global warming leading to extreme weather events like fire and flood. We must reduce mining, even though it is Australia's biggest export. We should bring in laws to encourage miners to invest outside coal.

In the meantime, I have a plan to help Australia's mining industry get money and balance air pollution.

For every 100 tonnes of coal mined, companies should plant 1 tree. That's 4 million new trees per year!

Only when these tasks and many more are completed will we be at rest from the war against climate change.

Emmy has a, I think, very challenging contribution:

I Want to Walk Home.

I am a 16 year old girl and I cannot walk around my neighbourhood by myself at night.

I am 16 and I can have a full time job, I can apply for my own passport, and I can have my own Medicare card. But I still can't walk around my neighbourhood by myself at night, because it's dangerous.

35% of women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual violence. I am privileged enough to be able to say that I live in a safe community, but I still can't go out by myself at night and in the next 10 years I want to be able to do that.

I want my community to be a safe space for women and I want gender-based violence to be a focus by the police force in my community.

The future needs to be a safe space for women, where girls don't have to be too cautious of the person walking behind them, it's achievable if it is put as a focus.

This is an issue that we face now, because what if it was your wife, or daughter, or your friend?

Thank you, Emmy and Zoe, for very powerful contributions. They are very topical subjects to pick. From a personal perspective, they are two of the most important issues that drove me to come into politics and to be in this place to try and make change on these very big issues. I know many people in this place are dedicated to making sure those two big issues—gendered violence against women, and climate change—remain the core focus of the government.

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