Youth Affairs Council of Western Australia
HON ALISON XAMON (East Metropolitan) [10.02 pm]: I would like to take this opportunity toacknowledge the passage of an important milestone for a particularly good Western Australian non-government organisation—the Youth Affairs Council of Western Australia. It has recently celebrated its thirtieth year as the peak non-government youth organisation in Western Australia. It had a celebration, which I attended, as did Hon Liz Behjat, who attended on behalf of the Minister for Youth, and Chris Tallentire, the member for Gosnells. It was a fun affair, and there was a lot of energy. It is a particularly important celebration to acknowledge. I want to say a few words about YACWA and the youth environment in which it is operating. YACWA has been a vocal, passionate and independent advocate for young Western Australians since the 1970s and has played an important central role in lobbying and advocating for the inclusion of young people in our society. The council is supported by a very dedicated group of workers. I am sure that many members would have had the pleasure of working with or at least meeting YACWA’s current executive officer, Craig Comrie, or perhaps the immediate past executive officer, Lisa Laschon, who was there for the past three years. I have certainly appreciated the advice and the guidance that I have received from YACWA. It is very well informed and well positioned to provide considered input on the impact of legislation or government policy on our youth. What it does not know, it is able to easily direct to other organisations that have a very keen understanding of contemporary youth issues.
Some members may have attended a YACWA function. Two in particular that come to mind are Fairground, the youth sector conference that I attended this year, and the “Home is where the heart is” photo exhibition, which some members may have attended. It is an exhibition of photos taken by homeless youth. I have one such photo hanging in my office, which is a particularly good one. They are two inspirational YACWA events. If members have not had the opportunity to attend any of these events until now, I recommend that they think about attending them at some time in the future.
YACWA has certainly come a long way in 30 years. As I said, it was formed in September 1978 but it became incorporated two years later, on 21 September 1980. It started the way many good community groups do—with volunteer staff in a shared office. From 2000 to now the YACWA membership has grown to exceed 300. The council has also made some significant achievements in coordinating the relationships between different organisations and individuals who are involved in the field of youth work. To its great credit, YACWA has managed not only to survive but also to thrive, despite the challenge of relying on government funding for over 30 years. The achievements of YACWA are particularly noteworthy given that the youth sector is traditionally given very little political prominence or acknowledgement, and it is constantly struggling to get attention and obtain sufficient funding. Even today, the Office of Youth has limited funding for youth projects and youth sector engagement. The Minister for Youth has little dedicated funding for this aspect of her portfolio. I will say that I think the lack of a dedicated youth plan for Western Australia makes it difficult for the limited funding available to be allocated in a strategic way in order to maximise positive outcomes for young people and for youth service organisations.
One of the roles of the Youth Advisory Council of WA has been also to fight against public misconceptions and stereotypes about young people. We know that most young people are flourishing in achieving key milestones in attainment and future outcomes. We know that two-thirds of young people in Australia are engaged in some form of education. Forty-four per cent of 15 to 19-year-olds and 69 per cent of 20 to 24-year-olds are working and one-third of young people donate their time to volunteer work. I would like to point out that this is a higher participation rate than the rate of adults aged 65 and over.
Only four per cent of the youth population engage in criminal behaviour, but, unfortunately, this statistic fails to garner comment from legislators who, in an attempt to be seen to be tough on law and order, I am concerned, seem intent on demonising young people and promoting a community attitude that young people are all potential criminals or a group to be feared. YACWA has struggled for years against the tough-on-crime agenda that has been pushed by successive governments, which I think is a misguided attempt to appeal to voters. What is most concerning about this agenda is that young people will be the most significantly impacted on by punitive legislation, including mandatory stop and search legislation and prohibited behaviour orders. Each of these has no proven benefit in crime reduction or community safety, but we are discussing this at the moment. In the case of the stop and search and PBO legislation, there is a wealth of international evidence to suggest that they are failed policy approaches.
I am concerned that the law and order agenda of the current government is pushing young people towards incarceration rather than diverting them. This has many implications for young people, including being a huge financial cost to the community. YACWA has provided anecdotal evidence that young people are in some cases being incarcerated for failure to pay fines. I have to ask: is this really a valid reason for imprisoning our young people? The council also has many stories of homeless young people committing crimes simply to have a place to sleep. We know that WA has one of the highest rates of juvenile incarceration in the country and the cost of keeping a young person in prison is $219 000 a year in WA as opposed to an estimated $5 000 a year for an offender to take part in a rehabilitation program. I am inclined to say that if the government does not care about kids and only about money, perhaps it should focus a little bit on those figures alone. Despite growing evidence suggesting that the number of young people in prison is becoming unworkable, we have continually failed to implement effective strategies to reduce incarceration rates and have under-resourced recognised intervention and diversionary programs. According to YACWA, rather than continuing a punitive attitude towards juvenile justice, we need a positive approach to crime intervention that invests in early intervention, prevention and diversion. Evidence suggests that greater investment in these strategies will result in fewer young people having contact with the juvenile justice system. In YACWA’s opinion the key to an effective juvenile justice strategy is in promotion of positive family and community engagement; provision of role modelling and mentoring programs for young people; recognition of the inequities and disadvantage that many young people, in particular Indigenous young people, face; ready access to opportunities for young people to become economic and educational participators; promotion of multi-systemic collaboration between both government and nongovernment service providers so that young people can access services as and when they need them; provision of adequate, sustainable resources to programs that work to divert young people from the juvenile justice system; and provision of adequate through care and support for those leaving detention, including adequate support and housing options.
Despite what has been suggested by the rhetoric surrounding the government’s law and order agenda, the majority of young people are in fact law-abiding individuals, who are more likely to be victims rather than perpetrators of crime. In fact, 15 to 24-year-olds are the group that are most likely to be the victims of assault or robbery despite the public perception that older members of the community are predominantly victims of crime. There are few voices out there who are advocating against punitive, ineffective justice strategies, and YACWA is a really critical one of them. We need to be listening to YACWA. It provides a well positioned and informed voice for youth.
So I want to say happy birthday, YACWA. I hope you have another 30 good years in undertaking the important task of advocating for the interests of young people in Western Australia.