YOUTH PARLIAMENT

Ms BETTISON (Ramsay) (15:18): I rise today to speak in parliament regarding the Youth Parliament, which is a personal development program that gives young people aged 16 to 25 a voice on issues of importance in our community. I am pleased to say that this year is the 18^th year of Youth Parliament, and we had more than 80 participants. I was very delighted to be able to join them at the opening of the Youth Parliament on Monday, 15 July, and I note that the Minister for Youth made an opening speech on that day.

More than 1,000 participants have played a part in the Youth Parliament over the years, and those people who were there at the opening—many who had participated previously—spoke very fondly about how much they got out of it and then how they have been able to contribute in other years. The program is not just the week in parliament, but several modules, including a training session in May and a residential component during the Youth Parliament week.

The Youth Parliament participants work in teams of six to eight to actively research and develop youth bills. Participants complete two to three days of training overall, as well as attending local team meetings to prepare for parliament week. The training covers bill writing; parliamentary process skills and learning how the parliamentary system works; as well as developing public speaking, leadership and public relations skills. The participants are able to gain credit towards their SACE Certificate as part of their integrated learning or research project. They are also able to gain credit if they are participating in the Duke of Edinburgh Award.

Fourteen bills were debated over four days and they were streamed live through the intranet. While South Australians were very active, they were also part of a national agenda of youth parliaments, and there were some shared bills that all the youth parliaments debated. In South Australia, five bills passed, and they were the Youth Employment Act, Free Student Public Transport Act, Organ Sponsorship and Quality Act, Indigenous Education Studies Act and Family Planning Options Act.

The YMCA delivers this Youth Parliament with an incredible team of volunteers called Taskforce. Taskforce is a group of young people responsible for organising Youth Parliament each year. It is mostly made up of previous participants and is responsible for five areas—training, support, operations, recreation and public relations and advocacy. The trainers organise the training weekend where participants learn about the parliamentary process as well as how the sitting week in parliament is going to run. I thank Faye Gough, Tom Stratford, Cambell Davis, Ebony Haebich and Sam Davis for their roles. They were supported by the support manager in Brianna Obst.

The operations team was headed by Matthew Shilling, Matthew Crawford and Ashleigh Walsh. The recreation team included Rachael Cormie and Jacqui Slocom, and the public relations team included Samantha Mitchell, Cameron Edson and Sarah Nelson. The Youth Governor is also part of the Taskforce team and it is his responsibility to be the voice and face of the program, representing the participants and carrying out public relations and media responsibilities, and I thank Aaron Dela Paz for his role in the Youth Parliament 2013.

I was very pleased to see Marina Hull, a member of the Salisbury Youth Council, was acting premier during the Youth Parliament, and she was one of several members of the Salisbury Youth Council participating. In closing, I would just like to quote a comment that was on the YMCA website from a participant from the previous year. It says:

Youth Parliament provides opportunity for like-minded youth from a diverse range of backgrounds to promote issues that are important to them, create lifelong friendships and to give back to society.