Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to Senator Chandler for her question. The coalition strives to ensure maximum opportunity for younger Australians, with the best available opportunities in education and employment, and the most appropriate assistance for those who require some help or are in a crisis. The government's focus is for young people, to support them to be healthy, active and engaged participants in society and the economy.

As our first step, we've established a youth task force, and as minister one of the most enjoyable things as part of my portfolio has actually been engaging with young people and the organisations that represent them—organisations such as Youth Activating Youth, an organisation based out of Victoria that is assisting disadvantaged multicultural young Australians to re-engineer their lives and their commitments. Year13 is a socially driven organisation connecting young Australians with all of the options available after high school and beyond. Today we welcome the winners of the Heywire regional youth program, which is being conducted by the ABC, to the parliament. One of the real pleasures has been to hear their ideas, their stories and how we can work with them to improve Australia and their activities.

At the end of last year I announced that we would fund the 2020 Australian Youth Development Index. The Australian Youth Affairs Coalition will undertake this work, and it is essential to provide key information to inform the evidence on the status of youth development in Australia.