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Welcome everyone.
It’s my great pleasure to be here to present the National Youth Awards for 2015.
The National Youth Awards recognise the achievements and commitment of young Australians.
They are an important part of National Youth Week which is taking place this week.
The theme of National Youth Week this year is – “It starts with us.”
I can see from meeting some of you tonight and having kept an eye on some of the activities happening this week that a very bright future for our nation starts right here.
Tonight’s 28 finalists come from across Australia.
You are here because of your outstanding commitment and dedication to your chosen pursuits.
And tonight, you are being recognised across six individual award categories, they are:
- Youth Safety award
- Youth Courage award
- Youth Culture and Diversity award
- Youth Employment award
- Youth Health Award and;
- Youth Leadership award.
What strikes me most about all of you here tonight, and indeed those that I have met in previous years, is your humility.
You do not do what you do in order to seek recognition or compensation. You are content to continue your great work for your peers and community without recognition.
So again this year, that’s what makes recognising and celebrating your achievements so important.
There is also a seventh category tonight, the Youth in Media Award, which recognises the contribution made by Australian journalists and media organisations in positively portraying young people in the media.
We have four journalists from both state and local media outlets who have promoted positive stories about youth in the media.
This award is important in a society where the world of news, whether it is what we read in the papers or see online and read on various social media feeds, we do tend to focus a bit more bad news than good news.
When we hear stories about young Australians we tend to hear about the challenges.
We tend to hear more about youth mental health problems, youth unemployment figures and cyber bullying than we do about people like 12 year old Maggie Heffernan, who joins us here tonight, and has taken on the responsibility of protecting and educating her friends and schoolmates against bullying.
There are young people out there with positive stories, people like Mark Haseloff who is a finalist in the Youth Health award. Mark is the Chair of the National Youth Cancer Advisory Group, a group run nationally by CanTeen.
Mark has used his own experience as a young cancer patient to advocate and argue for change and improvement in treatments and support offered to other young cancer patients and survivors in Australia.
Mark is just one of many young Australians who saw a challenge in his community and he stepped up and took on the responsibility to make things a little better.
And this is something we rarely hear about in news. And this is why it is important to recognise those who do portray young Australians in a positive way.
Too often we hear more about an allegedly bleak future for young Australians than we do about the many positive opportunities they have in front of them.
However, we know that young people who live in Australia have a better future, have more opportunities that most other young people around the world.
In fact, you, the finalists in this room, will live longer, have better jobs, be healthier, have greater access to technology and have greater opportunity to participate in decision-making than virtually any other young people on Earth.
That is, according to the 2014 Global Youth Wellbeing Index, which puts young Australians at the top of the table.
Of the 30 countries investigated and measured against a indicators including economic opportunity, health, technology, education, civil participation as well as safety and security, Australian young people were judged the world’s most fortunate.
I think it is an extraordinary achievement for our nation.
We all know that Australia is the lucky country, but this is something that sometimes is easy to forget.
This does not mean there isn’t room for improvement. There are always challenges to address.
And this is where young Australians, such as you play an important role.
Determined and committed young Australians can change the world for those who may only be a few years younger than them. You may not be able solve a national problem on your own, but a local one, or changing the world for a handful of people.
According to a report on youth wellbeing, young Australians rank fourth in the OECD when it comes to joining a charitable or humanitarian group.
This ranking does not surprise me.
In my current role I have been fortunate enough to meet many young people who volunteer their time to causes that they are passionate about.
In fact, our country is full of young people who go about their voluntary service without seeking fanfare, accolade or compensation, young people like you sitting here tonight.
They are on the frontline with their fire hoses during bushfire season, they keep people safe at our beaches, they umpire football and netball matches and they tend injury in St John’s Ambulance tents.
Other young people spend hours each week learning leadership skills and building character through Scouts and Girl Guides. And this lists only a few organisations of the scores that young Australians volunteer in.
Thousands of young Australians also develop policy, debate issues and contribute to our democracy through the youth wings of our political parties or through various issue groups and other organisations. While I may disagree with some and agree with others, they all strengthen our civic society.
Since being elected just over eighteen months ago, the Australian Government has chosen to take a new route towards empowering young people.
We have abandoned the fora and roundtables that previous governments had held with young Australians which provided headlines and happy photos for politicians but did little to assist or represent the diverse interests of the over $4 million young people in this country.
Young Australians today are busy. Between study, a part-time job, participating in recreational activities and undertaking volunteer work, most young people simply do not have the time to take part in these highly orchestrated fora, and therefore they failed to represent the majority of young people in Australia.
This Government takes a different approach.
The Government believes that we should not be telling young people what they can do. You are more than capable of forging your own paths, and making your own decisions.
So, instead we should be providing tools for you to make your own choices.
We are doing this by providing more funding for our schools, opening up access to higher education, whether that is University or TAFE, and building a stronger economy to assist the job market for young Australians. We are also committed to leaving you with a sustainable future by not leaving you with debts to pay off.
This is not a Government that pays lip service to young people, seeks superficial political photo-ops or to create the illusion of consultation through manufacturing contrived fora. It is a Government that is putting young Australians at the centre of what we do each and every day.
All of you here are being recognised for your commitment, your dedication and your energy that you give to a variety of causes that will hopefully benefit the lives of other young Australians in a tangible way.
No one knows the challenges that face your communities better than you. And no one is in a better position to actively advocate for and address these challengers.
The projects you undertake, the experience and passion you bring will change the lives of other young Australians, and are of immensely more value than another programme led by politicians or bureaucrats.
To the finalists and their families and friends, I encourage you to return to your community and continue your work.
We all need to do our bit to ensure Australia remains the best place in the world to be a young person.
Regardless of who wins in each category tonight, you should all be proud of the work you’re doing, and I’m sure you will all continue to make contributions to your communities and to wider society.
My congratulations and thank you to all the finalists for this year’s National Youth Awards, and best wishes for the rest of National Youth Week, and the future ahead.
(ENDS)