David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about Worldview Foundation, a local charity whose mission is to create strong futures for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Indigenous people in Canberra are almost 25 times more likely to be sent to prison than non-Indigenous Canberrans. Our Indigenous recidivism rate is the highest in the country at over 90 per cent. As Canberrans we should be ashamed of these statistics.

Not being okay with watching on and doing nothing, the team behind Worldview Foundation decided to step in. They started out in 2018 by offering programs to young First Nations people coming out of the justice system, offering them employment and helping keep them out of prison. Then they realised they need to reach people before they made contact with the justice system. Now they work mostly with First Nation boys in their late teens and early 20s by bringing them into a community focused on what's best for them, providing healthy meals, healthy relationships with mentors and a healthy work environment, where they recycle e-waste from across Canberra.

I was inspired by my visit to their facility in Hume a few weeks ago. I heard firsthand stories of how these young people's lives have been positively impacted by the team at Worldview Foundation. Governments at all levels should be doing everything they can to get behind these kinds of organisations and the people who run them. They are stepping up to make a difference in an area where governments are dragging their feet. They are bringing passion and commitment and a huge amount of time and putting that into the next generation to ensure that people aren't going into a life in prison.