Youth Parliament

The Hon. N.F. COOK (Hurtle Vale—Minister for Human Services) (15:29): I note the presence in the gallery, as have you, of Her Excellency Youth Governor, Samoda Silva; staff of the YMCA involved in the provision of the Youth Parliament program; tireless volunteers who make up the Taskforce of Youth Parliament; and, most importantly, some of our incredible youth parliamentarians who participated in this year's program.

I would like to note the contribution of the outgoing Youth Governor, Her Excellency Shania Richards, the first female First Nations Youth Governor in the program's history. In July this year, this house was graced with the newest cohort of the Youth Parliamentarian Program, a passionate group of young people fundamentally committed to having their say on issues and to making their mark.

Youth Parliament has run since 1995 and has an alumni now running into the thousands. I have been made aware today, Mr Speaker, that you may be one of those alumni. One of my staff members, Michael Hicks, is actually a member of the first class of youth parliamentarians; indeed, I believe he said he became the Prime Minister nationally of the Youth Parliament, and Rhianna Newman is also another graduate staff member. I feel very graced to be in the presence of all of you.

As the Minister for Human Services, I was proud to officially close the program this year and receive the results of bills debated here and in the other place. While I cannot formally present the bills to this place, as we have no mechanism, I would like to place on record the passage of the following bills, a true reflection of the compassion and the priorities of the thoughtful young people who constructed and debated some big ideas. We saw the following bills:

Accessibility of Sanitary Products Bill 2022;

Correctional Management Reform Bill 2022;

Family Funding and Support Scheme Bill 2022;

Gender-Affirming Healthcare Accessibility Bill 2022;

Indigenous Foster Care Reform Bill 2022;

Infinity Education Support Bill 2022; and

Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Bill 2022

I see a bright future in our state with such extraordinary bills, and I would like to touch on one of them: the Infinity Education Support Bill 2022. This bill considers the need for better support for neurodiverse students, a priority that the Malinauskas Labor government in particular is passionate about. We have recently appointed the first Assistant Minister for Autism to lead this important work, the work of our statewide autism strategy, the Hon. Emily Bourke from the other place.

We are determined to make South Australia an autism-friendly state through this strategy that we will develop in consultation with those with lived experience. The strategy includes $17.15 million to appoint an autism lead teacher in every public primary school with clear outcomes and accountabilities, increasing the number of autism-qualified staff in preschools, working with service providers, including Autism SA, to offer early intervention services in children's centres and investing $50 million to fund 100 additional speech pathologists, occupational therapists, psychologists and counsellors for access in the public school system.

My office met with one of the teams to provide advice and support and to connect them with relevant stakeholders. I am so pleased about how connected our young people are to the formal political process. We can make change together. It is heartening that passionate young people have also determined that this is a priority.

From my own electorate of Hurtle Vale, I would like to particularly recognise that Lucy and Lachlan participated in the program. Lucy is a Reynella East College student and Lachlan an Australian Science and Mathematics School student. Congratulations to a couple of my local up-and-coming leaders. I know they are very well engaged.

I would like to thank Nadia Clancy, the member for Elder, and Olivia Savvas, the member for Newland, who co-hosted the youth parliamentarians today. Olivia also participated in speaking with young people around the election process and today we did a round table with this extraordinary group of young people to identify some of the priorities for the future. Thank you to all of you and congratulations.

The SPEAKER: I recall well my youth parliament experience. I sat in a seat adjacent to the member for Hartley. I said very little; I was overawed by the experience. Some people said at the time that I was too quiet.