Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's my pleasure to be able to read this speech that was written by an 11-year-old boy in my electorate, named Sujaan, as part of the Youth Voice in Parliament Week. Thank you for taking the time to write about such an important issue, Sujaan. I can't wait to see you in politics in years to come. Here is Sujaan's speech:

Hi. I'm Sujaan, I'm 11 and I am from the Canberra electorate.

Can you think back to when you were my age, and what you wanted the world to look like in 20 years' time?

You might have imagined flying cars, or hoverboards, or a world where everyone has access to healthy food and clean water. But would you have imagined the only living structure you can spot from outer space, our very own Great Barrier Reef to be at risk of dying because of carbon in the atmosphere?

The current generation of adults needs to fix the problems in today's world, so when people of my generation are adults we don't have to spend our time fixing the problems that we have now. We will have to spend our time solving problems or inventing new ways to do things in the future which we haven't even begun to imagine yet.

There are small things we can all do, like not littering, turning off lights when you leave the room and not buying products containing palm oil. But there are bigger things that people and governments can do to reduce the destruction of nature. For example, encouraging everyone to use renewable energy sources and making sure forests and natural areas are better protected from logging and deforestation.

In 20 years, I want to be able to see a world where no one is destroying forests, killing wildlife, and releasing CO2 into the atmosphere.

When you were young, did you hope the leaders would do a better job to help fulfill your hopes about the future? Now that you're the leaders, do you think you could help the children of our generation to fulfill ours?