Grievance Debate

SCOUTS YOUTH TEAM CHALLENGE

Mr PISONI (Unley) (15:13): On Saturday 6 April I was privileged to attend the SA Scouts Youth Team Challenge at Woodhouse. More than 1,000 people aged between six and 18 took part as did, incidentally, 1,000 scout leaders and 500 parent volunteers. One parent volunteer was a former employee of mine whose daughter has been involved in scouts for many years, and also an old school mate I had not seen for close on 30 years. The large volunteer input is to be applauded. Although they can be challenging, the activities are designed to broaden the participants' skills and personal qualities in leadership, communication, resilience, teamwork, risk assessment and, most importantly perhaps, the acceptance of responsibility for themselves and those around them.

As the shadow minister for youth, education and small business (and before entering politics having trained 20 apprentices of my own), it became increasingly apparent to me the positive link between building these important skills in our youth and later success in the workforce, not only because of the general quality added to their lives but because the skills and qualities nurtured in this way are those that employers are seeking in a competitive and challenging career market.

Also, of course, at a time when we are focusing on problems of childhood obesity, the youth challenge, and similarly active programs promoting the scouting movement are to be actively encouraged. The scouting movement has a long and credible history of fostering the qualities which turn young people into fine young citizens of our community. Of interest, the scouting movement in Britain has seen its largest growth in 20 years, adding 15,000 members in the past 12 months. The British Scout Association believes that this can be partly explained by the backlash against what has been termed as a 'cottonwool culture' that has stifled this kind of active, challenging activity promoted by the youth team challenge.

At a time when even school programs such as the Premier's Be Active Challenge have significant computer-based components, it is important to take the recreation time of our young people and encourage them to participate in truly active outdoor activities. Certainly my own horizons of adventure were expanded markedly at the Woodhouse facility. Equipment was tested to its limits by my attempts (and my weight, of course) at rock climbing and horizontal bungee jumping. It was not until after I completed the rock climbing exercise that I was told that the support straps had a weight limit of 90 kilos, so I was certainly glad I did not fall off.

Other activities include bridge building, GPS orienteering and cross-country skateboarding. In fact, I became lost in the maze of mirrors. If it was not for my scout guide, I am sure I would still be in there today. It was a challenge too far. Certainly, in our local education system we have a debate about dumbing down. I think activities such as the Scouts Youth Team Challenge illustrates the benefit (within reasonable boundaries) of the acceptance of challenges, rather than the acceptance of limitations. Removing the element of challenge from life, as in the education process, is a short-term fix only. Today's school students and scouts are tomorrow's bosses and workers.

Setting challenges and a reasonable bar for achievement should be seen as helping young people to prepare for a fulfilling and independent life. We should assist those who have difficulty keeping up, not penalise them by lowering the standards and effectively holding them back. Dumbing down is not the responsible answer for our kids or our society. There is obviously a need to ensure that any future SACE and move towards a national curriculum moves towards rising the bar and assisting students to reach it, not reducing academic standards. The key thing that came out of this weekend was that challenges were given to kids and kids were very happy to take on those tasks and accept those challenges.

A note of thanks also: 2008 marks the 100^th year of scouting in Australia. There is no doubt that the scouting movement, as well as providing a lot of fun, has made a significant contribution to the education of young people, improving their skills and self-esteem, and will continue to play an important constructive role in the future, and I congratulate it.