Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

After yesterday’s apology to the forgotten Australians and in my 100th speech in parliament, I want to speak about today’s youth. I also thank the member for Fadden for attending my 100th speech as I was there for his.

Last parliamentary sitting week I organised a breakfast meeting for Youth Focus, which is a group that addresses the issue of youth suicide in my electorate of Swan and across Western Australia. Jenny Allen and Amanda Moore flew over from their Burswood office and delivered a moving and powerful presentation to members in attendance. I am grateful to colleagues from both sides of the House who took part in the morning’s activities. Peter Dutton, our shadow health minister, represented the coalition, Rachel Siewert was there to represent the Greens and Senator Mark Furner and Senator Louise Pratt represented the government.

Whilst Youth Focus offers many services throughout Western Australia, I know that it is trying to expand into other areas such as Albany, and this was an issue they brought up at the breakfast. Members may recall I spoke in February about how Youth Focus was struggling to cope with the added demands that are placed on charities during economic downturns whilst businesses waited to see how hard they were going to be hit.

I wrote to the Deputy Prime Minister and received a positive response. I was pleased to see that Youth Focus was then granted some money by the government under the Temporary Financial Assistance Program in September. I know that this money was well received and definitely needed, and I commend the government for providing it.

Another organisation that looks after youth in my electorate of Swan is the Esther Foundation. For members who may not be aware, the Esther Foundation is a local charity based in South Perth that helps women come to terms with issues such as substance abuse, sexual and emotional abuse, domestic violence, mental health, teenage pregnancy, self-harming, eating disorders, family breakdown and depression. Esther offers a residential program and has six premises across the South Perth region, housing 43 women and their children. The residential program builds these young women up by providing support and counselling, helping reconciliation with family members and encouraging them to retrain and find employment.

The attendance at the recent Esther Foundation ball on 6 November is testament to the respect the organisation has achieved in such a short time. The ball was hosted by Alicia Gorey and attended by a host of politicians including the WA Minister for Youth, Donna Faragher, the MLA for South Perth, John McGrath, and Senator Mathias Cormann. There were also a couple of celebrities in attendance, namely Justin Langer and Shelley Taylor-Smith. Bianca Rhinehart was also there. As parliamentarians we must provide support to these groups and I am pleased that the WA government has provided some more support.

Organisations such as those I have mentioned are addressing the effects of a problem and they are doing a great job. However are we as a nation addressing the cause of our youth problems? I wish to finish with a letter I received from Rodney Lavater on Saturday. Rodney works for the Esther Foundation. It reads:

Hello,

This morning our organisation was notified that Rebecca, a young girl who spent three months in our program earlier this year, passed away yesterday from a drug overdose.

It is suspected that she took own life.

Rebecca was 19 years of age and was a very soft and sweet teenage girl, who had many troubles outside of the program that she left to attend to. She did not even reach her 21^st …

With Australia having a high suicide rate out of the industrialised countries, we are only left to ask ourselves “Where and what can we do to change this…” There is a Coldplay song that sings “are we part of the cure or part of disease …”

Thank you to all of those that support the Esther Foundation, as we all work together to assist those in the community that are broken or poor of spirit and need a helping hand to get through the tough times that individuals can experience through life.

Without such assistance being available to the many young girls that are in our program, the above tragic story may be only more frequent I am afraid to say.

Rest in Peace Rebecca, from all at the Esther Foundation.

Your character touched many lives before you passed from this earth.

During the course of researching this speech I have been given conflicting statistics on Australia’s youth suicide rate. Whatever the number is, it is too high. We certainly need to devote resources to seeking the truth on this issue. I note the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Community Affairs produced a summary report of a seminar into youth suicide back in 1997. It may well be time for a full-scale inquiry to address the key issues.

In the meantime I would of course stress the importance of providing support to these charitable organisations that help youth. I will continue to support Youth Focus and the Esther Foundation.