Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to talk about the brilliant young people whom I represent as the member for Hotham. One of the things I have really noticed since I became a member of parliament is that young people are often forgotten about in the public policy debate, and it is often because no-one asks them what they think. Recently I wrote to the 11,000 young people between the ages of 18 and 25 that I represent in my electorate and asked them to tell me what issues are important to them. I was absolutely overwhelmed with the responses that my office received. Over a thousand young people took the time to respond to me by mail or online and give me their feedback about how we are doing here in this chamber. You often hear that young people are disengaged from the public debate or not interested in the issues we talk about in this chamber, but I can assure you that that is not my experience as a member of parliament, nor is it the experience that I had in surveying these young people.

I told the young people who responded to the survey that I would give voice to their concerns in this chamber, and I rise this evening to do that. By far the most important topic amongst these young people, raised by 78 per cent of respondents to this survey, was the topic of housing affordability. Young people are being driving out of the housing market, especially in Melbourne, and are desperate for action from their representatives. But what do they have? They have a Prime Minister and senior ministers who think the answer to affordable housing for young people is to have rich parents, to move to the bush or to find a higher paying job. It is no wonder young people are feeling so frustrated.

The second-most important issue to the young people I represent was jobs and training. This should resonate with every single member of this House. Young people are crying out for work. They are looking for further education opportunities more than ever before. What they need is a federal government that will back them in, that will help them attain those important skills, and they are not getting it. Young people are asking me: how on earth is it that this government is able to find $50 billion to pay for a tax cut for the biggest companies in this country? They are able to give a tax cut in this upcoming budget of more than $16,000 a year to every millionaire who lives in this country, and yet they want to push the cost of education—$100,000 degrees—onto the young people of this nation. It is absolutely outrageous and it is not good enough.

The third-most important topic that was raised with me was climate change, with 63 per cent of young people highlighting this as an issue that is important to them. I think young people on average talk a lot more about climate change than older generations because those young people that we represent, and their children, are going to live through the worst impacts. It is up to us in this parliament to work to ensure that we do everything we can to implement a clean energy future for Australians who will be living in this country when we are all gone.

Some of the other issues that came up in the survey were as follows. There was a very strong interest, as I mentioned, in stopping $100,000 university degrees. About 56 per cent of survey respondents spoke about marriage equality as an issue of great importance to them. About half of the young people that responded to this survey highlighted improvement to local mental health services as a major priority. I also asked young people to talk to me about how they want to consume their news and how they want to hear from us as members of parliament. The answers will not shock anyone in this chamber. Nine out of 10 respondents asked me to communicate with young people through Facebook and in fact nominated Facebook as the main area they are getting their news. Just one third of the young people who responded to the survey nominated newspapers and television, those traditional forms of news, as the first place they go to in order to get the news. I think this highlights that it is up to us, as the local members for these very important constituents, to communicate effectively with them and in ways that they desire.

I asked these young people about ways that we can improve the work that we do here in this parliament to represent them, and I want to indicate that they came up with some fantastic ideas. One of them was to have a junior member for each electorate, who would meet regularly with their member of parliament and be a voice for the young people living in that particular area. We got a lot of requests from young people who had recently finished secondary school for more democracy in school captain elections. Youth debates were raised, as well as online live Q&As on Facebook and online town halls. Mentoring programs were also raised. This consultation has been eye-opening for me. It has proved something that I already believed—that is, that young people do care deeply about the society that they live in, but they feel let down by the institutions that are there to represent and support them. Young people have a great deal to say. I would encourage other members to get out there and ask your young people what they think about what we are doing here. They have some really quality responses waiting for you.