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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-12-04 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

Youth Advisory Panel

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (15:19): Today, I would like to pay tribute to a group of young people in my electorate and in my community. Earlier this year, I established a youth advisory panel in my electorate to engage young people in community discussions and debates.

The purpose of the Youth Advisory Panel is to provide young people with the opportunity to speak directly and regularly with me about issues that are of concern to them. I was very keen to hear from young people about their views on a range of issues, not only what we might call youth matters but their perspective on a range of other issues that impact on the community. The panel provides a forum for young people in our community to speak their minds, and this will assist me as their local representative to have a better understanding of the issues in my community.

It is my belief that in our democracy we should give young people a voice in the political process to ensure that our decisions more accurately reflect community sentiment. Most of these young people are on the verge of voting, so I think it is very important for them to get involved and engage in the political process so they understand the issues and make informed decisions not only at election time but from time to time when other issues come up.

I invited all schools in the Light electorate, as well as those with a significant number of students living in the electorate but whose school is physically just outside my electorate, to nominate two students to be part of the panel. The response I received from the schools and the young people was outstanding. All seven colleges that I invited to be part of the panel accepted the invitation. My panel now includes 15 young people, plus teachers who accompany them to these various meetings.

In addition to representatives from the various schools, I was very keen to make sure that young people who were not at school but who would like to express an opinion were also invited, so I extended the panel to include representatives from the Playford Youth Advisory Committee, the Gawler Youth Advisory Committee and the Light Barossa Youth Advisory Committee, which are established by councils and represent a broader group of young people. I chose to do it this way because it is very important that the YAP is a very diverse group that reflects the diversity of opinions, views and backgrounds of young people in my community.

The YAP will meet four to six times a year and the agenda items will be determined by the young people themselves. We held our first meeting in mid-September. Since that first mid-September meeting, we agreed on some ground rules and a whole range of issues. We had a discussion about what sorts of issues we would like to put on the agenda and how often we would meet. We had a meeting here in Parliament House where the group met with the Leader of the Opposition and the President of the upper house and had a tour of parliament.

I would like to acknowledge those representatives on my panel because they are doing a wonderful job. If time permits, I would like to mention a recent meeting, how important it was and the contributions that were made. The young people who are part of the panel are Ethan White, Rebekah Harris, Kobi Rigney-Foster and Jordan Searle from Xavier College; Curtis Worden and Tianna Ranford from Gawler and District College; Bridie McDougall and Nakai Bvunzawabaya from Trinity College Gawler; Robani Shukuru, Mwangaza Milunga and Claudetta Niyera from Mark Oliphant College; Gloria Kiwele and Mercedes Heydrich from St Columba College; Scott Larsen and Corey Lloyd from St Patrick's Technical College; Paige Gauci from Northern Adelaide Senior College; and Angus Millikan from the Gawler Youth Advisory Committee.

I am very proud to say that at our most recent meeting we addressed the issue of the mental health of young people, and the panel was really engaged in that. I would also like to acknowledge Dr Naomi Rutten, who gave an outstanding presentation about how young people develop and what we need to do to make sure they have the resilience to have good health. What really impressed me about the young people is that they want to have another meeting to discuss what they can take away from that meeting to do in their schools and in the community to make sure that young people in our community are resilient and have good mental health.

Time expired.

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