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Mr MIKE BAIRD (Manly) [6.14 p.m.]: I bring to the attention of the House an important matter. With a Federal election looming it is very appropriate to raise this issue. In my capacity as shadow Minister for Youth Affairs one thing has become clear and that is that more and more youth today are not engaged with the political process. His Excellency the Governor-General, Major General Michael Jeffery, in an address on Australia Day 2005 said:
Whether it be because of the way politics is conceptualised and portrayed in society, the media or at school, many of today's young people appear to consider politics unappealing and therefore tend not to want to be associated with it.
Young people's apathy is possibly derived from a belief that the world of politics bears little or no effect on their lives. Politics, according to this theory, is about budgets, interest rates and housing prices, and these are issues that will only have an impact on young people in the future. When they become aware, however, of the significance of politics on their daily lives, it was evident that young people were more likely to take an interest.
This is a concern and the statistics show that more and more young people are taking longer and longer to enrol on the electoral roll. There is a young group in Manly and two principals, James Griffin and Tom Griffin, who have done an outstanding job with this initiative. They helped me in my recent campaign, but on a non-political basis. They have brought a group of people into a national network in a very short time with an initiative called iVote Australia. The website for iVote Australia is not about supporting or endorsing any political party. The group has not received any government funding or political party funding and members of the group have used their own bank savings to fund the website. On the website it states:
The website is focused on attracting young people to the democratic process by fusing different aspects of a young person's life with politics. For example, we use sporting stars (Lote Tiqiri) and TV/Radio (Tony Squires/Mikey Robbins) personalities to record short videos encouraging young people to enrol to vote and understand how the election affects them.
Their view is very strong: that young people are not apathetic; they care about issues such as climate change, the economy, the war in Iraq, housing and so on. However, expressing their concern through voting is sometimes difficult because they do not possess the political information or knowledge. I call on the House and the community of New South Wales to encourage our youth to vote because I believe it is very important that people express their views, understand the issues and vote accordingly. Clearly, the Federal election is going to be a very important election. I call on all the youth of today to participate and use this website, ivoteaustralia.com.au, to inform their vote. I commend James Griffin and Tom Griffin for their outstanding work and the other guys involved in that initiative.
It would be remiss of me not to wish the mighty Manly Warringah Sea Eagles all the best in the event on Sunday. It is not often a team makes a grand final and clearly the aspirations of the community rests with the Sea Eagles as they face this challenge. We look forward to members wearing the colours of maroon and white in the House tomorrow as the Sea Eagles take on not only the hopes and dreams of the peninsula and the northern beaches but indeed the entire State. We commend and congratulate the grand final team line-up that was announced yesterday.
The team is led by Sea Eagles coach Des Hassler, who was an outstanding footballer, and the players are: Brett Stewart, Michael Robertson, Steve Bell, Steve Matai, Chris Hicks, Jamie Lyon, Matt Orford, Jason King, Michael Monaghan, Brent Kite, Anthony Watmough, Glenn Stewart, Luke Williamson, and on the interchange Travis Burns, Glenn Hall, Mark Bryant, Steve Menzies, Matt Ballin, Jack Afamasaga and Adam Cuthbertson. These gentlemen are carrying the hopes and dreams of many of the youth of today with them, and we wish them well. I will pass on from this House, and implore the House to pass on, our congratulations and best wishes to the Sea Eagles and also to the group that put together iVote Australia before it is too late to register a vote.
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