I have to say at the outset - I am a sucker for big events in Sydney. I breathlessly remember the buzz on the streets during the Olympics with big screen TVs charting the progress of aspiring Aussies, the festival feel to the usual bars in the city and the pride of our volunteers who showed the world that there was a deep human spirit to our city well beyond the beautiful harbour.

I was also fan of APEC as despite the military fences, there is a deep sense of pride when the world’s cameras turn to “your city” as they did when most of the world leaders hit our shores. It is almost as if we are saying to the world have a look, can you believe it … this is our home and we cannot believe how lucky we are ourselves.

So it will come as no surprise that I was also a fan of World Youth Day or even the whole week!! It is hard not to be caught up in the excitement of thousands of guitar-playing youth, who recently transformed our city and reminded us that the problems of the world do have some hope.

However, as this festival unfolded I thought that it is not without a deep sense of irony that on one hand we are pouring funds into a celebration for the youth of the world and yet each night there are 11,000 children homeless in NSW alone.

For those that saw the documentary on the work of the Oasis youth support network released in early April, it would be hard not to be compelled to support those that are dealing first hand with the 11,000 each night. Indeed Paul Moulds, who runs the centre, is exhilarated that a flow on effect of the documentary has been that he has received community funding for another 6 beds at his centre. What, 6 beds??

While the State Government, and indeed the community at large, pulled out all stops to look after the youth of the world through the offer of multiple beds across the city, and food at every turn, the sobering youth homeless statistics in this state must not go unrecognised.

I haven’t criticised the State Government for providing at least $100 million to support a celebration of youth and hope, and anyone who has criticised the event should go and watch another episode of Scrooge. However my simple request is where is the same amount to address the seemingly “too hard” issue of youth homelessness? If Paul Moulds is excited about an additional 6 beds surely the possibilities of using $100 million to help him and the many other groups that are tackling this problem should be prioritised.

So as the songs of celebration, footprints on Randwick racecourse and blazes of pilgrim colour continue to fade away, here’s hoping that we start tackling a major issue affecting our youth here in this city with the same passion and importantly financial commitment from the State Government.

Cheers
Mike

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