YOUTH PARLIAMENT

The Hon. J.M. GAZZOLA (15:23): My question is to the Minister for Youth. Minister, will you inform us about the Youth Parliament program 2012?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion, Minister for Social Housing, Minister for Disabilities, Minister for Youth, Minister for Volunteers) (15:23): I thank the honourable member for his most important question and tell him that I will be happy to do so.

The Hon. T.J. Stephens: That is good of you.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Indeed, as long as my voice holds out. Last week I opened the 17^th session of Youth Parliament actually in this chamber—and they were very pleased, I can say, to be in our chamber for a change. I did tell them on the day that they should not be too disappointed in the lower house not being available to them. I said that the lower house lets us all down from time to time and they should take it as an omen that they are opening their Youth Parliament in this chamber because they would learn how to comport themselves in a proper manner as youth parliamentarians, unlike the behaviour they could have emulated in that other place.

Since its inception 17 years ago, more than 1,000 young people have participated in the annual Youth Parliament program. The program provides a unique forum for young people between the ages of 16 and 25 to express their views, develop their skills and also learn about South Australia's parliamentary system. The program is run by the YMCA of South Australia and sponsored by the Office for Youth. Parliament House was the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as for the motion of public interest debates held later in the day, which gave all participants the opportunity to debate inside Parliament House. This year, many of the team debates were held at Rostrevor College due to the asbestos removal being undertaken in the House of Assembly.

The state government is proud to support the Youth Parliament program, as it provides young people with a unique opportunity to learn more about the parliamentary system in a very practical, hands-on way. The program gives young people a voice about topics important to them, and the state government is certainly interested to hear these young people's opinions and also to listen to the debates on motions of importance and the bills because, even though many of those bills were passed with an overwhelming number of people supporting them, there are different levels of support for those individual bills in the chamber at the time.

In recent years, Youth Parliament has led the debate and sparked interest across the wider community on issues such as gay marriage and plastic shopping bags indeed long before they were even debated in the state or federal parliament. This year, 14 bills were debated and six were officially passed, including, I understand, the Rural Health Scheme Act, the Jumps Racing Outlaw Act (an unusual title in itself), the Tertiary Education Assistance Act, the Rural Transport Enhancement Act, the Rural Development Act, and the Migrant Support and Cultural Awareness Act.

Youth Parliament has proven to be a platform for young people to express their views, develop their public speaking and leadership skills and gain credits towards SACE subjects and the Duke of Edinburgh Award, and this year has been no exception. I commend the work of the YMCA and the Office for Youth in conducting another successful Youth Parliament in 2012 and look forward to their returning next year.