Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In my first year in parliament, I convened a roundtable of student leaders from schools in my electorate. I've done it every year. It makes me feel old when I tell the House that this is my 10th student roundtable. It's an opportunity to hear directly from those who may not have a vote but who do have a voice so that that voice can be heard here in parliament. Like so much of 2020, this year we did it by Zoom. I had the privilege of hearing from students from 12 schools, including from St Joseph, amity, chevalier, Kanahooka, Albion Park, Corpus Christi, Dapto, Oak Flats, Illawarra sports, Lake Illawarra and Bowral. I endeavoured to hear as much about students' experience of COVID-19 as possible—the positive and the negative. Many described the year as challenging, as stressful. One group of students described it as 'cancelled'. They all had their own stories of what it was like to live and study through this most difficult year. I was struck by their optimism and hope for the future. We need to wrap ourselves around that.

I asked them to focus on a couple of issues, and almost unanimously they identified mental health as something that warranted further attention. An overarching issue was the need for more support for students. Some identified the issue of the curriculum and wanting more focus in the PDHPE subject on mental health. Others identified the issue of the ratio of school counsellors within high schools, and that being the most appropriate location for many of them to access mental health support.

Students also wanted governments and members of this place to understand how year 12 students had fared through this most difficult year. Many students pointed to issues with the amount of work being issued to them—sometimes too little, sometimes not enough, often too late. They also wanted to stress the importance of social isolation and how so many of them learnt through regular peer-to-peer contact with each other and how they missed that during the period of lockdown. It was suggested that more options needed to be put in place to support these students in the years ahead. For those students who are doing year 12, we need to smooth a pathway for further study, further skill development or the way into the workforce.

There were also some positive issues that were identified that they want further action on, which I'll speak more about in other debates when I find the opportunity in this place. One concerned NDIS access for autistic students in mainstream schools. Another issue was access to sanitary products for young women in schools. I'll have more to say about these issues in later debates.