CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS

Ms JARRETT (Brisbane) (16:39): There are 187,000 people living in the Brisbane electorate, and 19,000 of those are schoolchildren. In the coming decades, those 19,000, statistically, will finish school, start a career, buy a home and start a family. Some of them will become doctors, nurses, lawyers, tradies—maybe even politicians.

But our youth aren't just statistics; they are the future of our nation. Earlier this year, I tasked my 18-year-old intern, Florence, with the challenge of improving how we in government can engage with young people in civics, and she had the creative idea to launch the inaugural Brisbane Youth Policy Challenge. That brought together 35 exceptional students from across the Brisbane electorate to develop a policy solution for a local issue that was important to them, and they used the same processes that we would use in this place.

I heard from students from public schools and private schools about a range of issues varying from education and transport to mental health, homelessness and intergenerational inequality. But the one thing that was prevalent across all the policy briefs we received was that young people aren't short of ideas; what they're short of is the platforms to have those ideas heard.

So we listened. We had our highly commended team from Kelvin Grove state high school, and they analysed the challenges of work experience for high school students. They recommended a reworked program designed to reduce the mental health strain placed on young people, particularly those facing systemic disadvantage.

The joint winners, however, were exceptional young leaders from Kedron State High School and Queensland Academies Creative Industries, known locally as QACI. They blew us away with their innovation, their professionalism, their creativity and their pragmatism. Kedron State High School students Angus, Asha, Jack, Mia and Toby, accompanied by Ms Meg Worsley, proposed a reversal of the Morrison government's Job-ready Graduates program to reduce what they saw as socioeconomic barriers for students entering legal and business degrees.

QACI students Abby, Holly, Jake, Lixi and Tilly, accompanied by Ms Corinne Jennings, sought to implement safe zones on public transport. They proposed that we need safe zones like the ones they have in Victoria, and they believe that that will increase not just civilian safety but schoolchildren's safety and, importantly, support the ever-growing uptake of public transport.

I am passionate about giving young people a voice. Too often they're part of a conversation in an audience and we ask them to listen and read, and, by the time they turn 18, they have to vote. But, last month, 35 students came together, and those students proved that they belong in the conversation, because the future of Brisbane is not some distant concept; it is sitting today in the classrooms of those 19,000 students.