Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for School Education and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Not wanting to detract from the spiritual tone of Senator Joyce’s speech on the works of Mary MacKillop and noting her canonisation last week, I rise to speak on a different matter, although it is not dissimilar to some of the fine works that Mary MacKillop did in her time. I speak tonight about a small but special group of parents. They are a special group of mums and dads because of their age. They are young parents, teenagers in fact, some as young as 14 or 15. The reason I speak in praise of these young mums and dads is that they have not only made the courageous decision to have their children and embark on the toughest job of all—that is, raising kids—but also made the decision to continue with their schooling. I also admire these parents because they have other issues to contend with which make their lot in life even harder. A lot of them are single parents, a lot of them lack family support and, sadly, a lot of them are scorned by society, which for some reason judges them incapable of properly looking after their children.

Yesterday I had the pleasure to speak at the launch of the Australian Young, Pregnant and Parenting Network, AYPPN, at Canberra College. Canberra College has an impressive story to tell: from four young mums at the school in 2004 there are about 100 young parents at the school today, including some dads and up to 15 Indigenous students. The young parents bring their children to school, there is a nurses clinic on site and every morning three school buses drive around Canberra collecting mums and bubs from their homes. As I said in my speech yesterday, these young mothers are champions, and schools like Canberra College and Corio Bay Senior College in Victoria—where one young mum was school captain a few years ago—are champions as well. They are education, community and workplace champions.

To illustrate the need for and the success of these programs, I share with the Senate tonight the story of 18-year-old Stevie-Lea Pedemont, who is the mother of 2½-year-old daughter Charlie. A single mother, Stevie-Lea says she lost most of her friends when she became pregnant during year 10. But, thanks to the support and encouragement of the CCCares program at Canberra College, this remarkable young woman has turned her life around. Ms Pedemont will graduate from year 12 in one month. She will start studying architecture at the University of Canberra next year and she is already working two days a week with an architectural firm in the job offer following a work experience placement. The future looks bright for this Queanbeyan teenager, and it looks bright for her precious daughter as well.

I believe that as a community we need to rethink how we treat young mothers. It is interesting that, on the one hand, we have increasing numbers of middle aged women who regret that they did not try to have children sooner yet, on the other hand, we demonise and chastise young women because they become pregnant and decide to keep their babies. As I said earlier, these young women have the toughest job of all—that is, raising children—but it is even harder for them because society punishes them, whether through scornful looks, abusive remarks or simply shutting them out.

Why do we scorn and discriminate against young women for having children and for trying to do the best they can for themselves and their families? We need to support and nurture young parents to overcome barriers to achieve better educational, health and employment outcomes, which will clearly provide a better life for their children. That is not to say that the federal government are not concerned about the rate of teenage pregnancies and wants it to decrease, because of course we do. But we are talking about one of the most vulnerable groups in our society and for that reason they deserve as much support and encouragement as we can give them, not to be abandoned to a life on welfare, of social isolation and entrenched disadvantage. That would be the absolute worst outcome, for mother and child—and for our society. What the Gillard Labor government is about is giving young women choices that they might otherwise feel they do not have. And that is what the schools that run these important programs provide.

I was interested to learn from Jan Marshall that Canberra College has some mothers returning to school just two days after leaving hospital with their newborns, sadly because they feel they have no other place to go. To use the jargon, Canberra College has demonstrated what being a good corporate citizen is all about. Without relying on government, the school identified a community need and rather than say, ‘It’s too hard,’ or ‘It’s not my problem’ they made it their problem and they found a solution. That is the sort of community minded attitude that needs to be encouraged.

I also acknowledge and applaud the many and varied partnerships that the school has established with government, with academia and with the community and corporate sector. I congratulate the Australian Young, Pregnant and Parenting Network on its launch yesterday and I note that one of its aims is to raise community awareness and stimulate public debate about the needs of young pregnant women and mothers. I look forward to playing my part to start the process of changing community attitudes so that young mothers and fathers—and their children too—do not feel ostracised but are embraced as valued members of our community and, in this case particularly, are assisted within their education community.