SA Youth Week

The Hon. J.S. LEE (14:59): My question is to the Minister for Human Services about SA Youth Week. As young people bring so much vitality to our state, can the minister please provide an update to the council about recent events that occurred as part of this important annual event in the South Australian youth calendar?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (15:00): I thank the honourable member for her question. Indeed, we have recently celebrated Youth Week, which was launched on 10 April this year. Honourable members would be familiar with a range of events that take place through local councils and there is a grants program that is run by the Department of Human Services in the six months prior to Youth Week. In any case, it is the latter half of the calendar year for councils to apply for grants. Those grant programs closed on 5 October 2018.

The state government provided some $84,000 through that particular grants program to enable a range of events to take place. My understanding is that, at a minimum, the following councils assisted in or had events and grant programs of their own: City of Salisbury, City of Holdfast Bay, Mid Murray Council, City of Onkaparinga, Adelaide Hills Council, Town of Gawler, Wattle Range Council and City of West Torrens.

I was very pleased that as part of Youth Week—and I have spoken before about the Youth Strategy that the state government has been involved in—we invited the participants in the YMCA Youth Parliament to kick off our strategy here in Parliament House. I think most of the participants in that program were able to attend. They were formally facilitated and it was great.

Most members here would be familiar with the YMCA Youth Parliament program and I think it is fair to say that when the groups first get together they haven't reached that stage where they have all bonded. By the end of it, they clearly have made a lot of connections and are working incredibly well together. It was a great privilege for us to be able to host them here at Parliament House. DHS facilitated an afternoon so that they could give us some input into the Youth Strategy, and we look forward to receiving reports about what their views are about the future directions of our state.