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

For the last 14 years I've been holding an annual youth summit in my electorate. It's a great way to have a direct dialogue with the young people who don't yet get to vote but who have lots of strong and well-informed opinions. I acknowledge the students, parents and teachers who facilitated my most recent roundtable. It included students from Dapto and Albion Park, Warilla High School, St Joseph's Catholic, Shellharbour Anglican College, Illawarra Sports High School, Moss Vale High, Bowral High, Southern Highlands Christian School, Oxley College, Chevalier College and St Paul's International College.

They told me a range of different things. They all want safer and more accessible mental health services, particularly services aimed at young people. Public school students told me that they want to have access to the same sorts of education facilities that they see when they drive past the private schools in my area. The fantastic kids from Bowral High School raised concerns about the prevalence of vaping and the lack of education and information about the health consequences. At Warilla High School, the students told me about their strong belief that every Australian, no matter what their income, deserves a roof over their head and about the importance of access to housing in our local area. At Moss Vale High School, they shared their passion about climate change and their ideas about how they could make a difference locally and the things they want to see governments acting on.

These young student leaders are so passionate about equality and a fair go. To be quite frank they actually share a lot of the same ideals that drove me into public life. They have my full support, and I can tell you the future is very bright and will be in good hands when these young Australians graduate. I want all young Australians to know that this government is passionate about their interests, their concerns and their opportunities into the future. We're providing more training places and more Commonwealth teacher scholarships—over 5,000—to encourage more Australians into the teaching profession. Fee-free TAFE is making a huge difference to kids accessing vocational education and training in my area. We've recently jointly funded a new housing facility in Warilla with the New South Wales government in partnership with Southern Youth and Family Services. We're acting on climate change locally as well as nationally. We've got new community batteries being installed in Dapto and Warrawong. We're having a community consultation about the advantages and benefits of offshore wind and the need to have more wind energy as part of our renewable energy projects.

I really enjoyed the conversation, and I look forward to doing it again in the very near future.

James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further constituency statements by honourable members, the next item of business will be called on.