Youth Week 
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| Friday, 04 April 2008 | ||||||
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Mr MIKE BAIRD (Manly) [12.37 p.m.]: Next week is the start of Youth Week which has been established to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of young people aged 15 to 24 across the State, including more than 10,000 in my electorate of Manly. The aim of Youth Week is to give a voice to young people, provide an opportunity for the wider community to listen, and to promote their issues of concern. I believe the two biggest burdens or concerns facing young people in New South Wales today are homelessness and mental health. Public perception of Manly is that it is a privileged area and that people who live there are without troubles. However, the problems of homelessness and mental health are very significant and real within my community. When Youth Week began in 1989, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commissioner of the time, Brian Burdekin, released his report "Our Homeless Children". Two years earlier, in 1987, then Prime Minister Bob Hawke uttered those famous words, "No Australian child will live in poverty by 1990". With the impending release next week of the only national independent inquiry into homeless children since the Burdekin report, it is worth reflecting on whether progress has been made or whether words and reports are facades for Government inaction on this issue. The Burdekin report's findings in the late 1980s shocked the community by identifying that 70,000 people across Australia were homeless, including most tragically about 25,000 young people. The report also highlighted how those young people were at risk of unemployment, addiction, sexual abuse and malnutrition—a very bleak picture. Nearly 20 years down the track, the report's author, Brian Burdekin, says little has changed despite this society having enjoyed one of the most prosperous periods of economic growth in our country's history. In fact, he says that youth homelessness in Australia is now at crisis point. Recent figures from the Youth Accommodation Association show that every night in New South Wales over 11,000 children are homeless. Sonia Hall from the Manly Community Centre provides an invaluable service to young people from my area who find themselves on the street with no support. Sonia said it is very hard not to feel the vulnerability of these kids. They may have been kicked out of home, it is wet and cold and they have nowhere to go. Another local worker said that if there are no beds for them in public housing they try to find themselves a couch for the night. However, that couch has a price, whether it be having to supply drugs or sex. He says for most young people the best way to get through the night is to do the drugs as it takes away the cold and the pain. The issues in the Burdekin report are still being identified as major problems by youth workers in the field and local councils and agencies. These include inadequate income support, a continuing need for longer-term housing options, limited education and training policies, continuing problems with coordination of services, and insufficient programs from early intervention to prevention, which itself was a key feature of the Burdekin report. Today about 100,000 people are homeless in Australia, with about a third aged 25 and under. This includes 26,000 aged between 12 and 18—up 30 per cent since the Burdekin report. In graphic terms, these young kids would almost fill Sydney Football Stadium, which is just a staggering image for one of the world's most wealthy cities. Only a minority of these young people have retained some connection with their school. The rest are not in employment, education or training. Indeed, the most significant health burden carried by young people in Australia today is that of mental health. Headspace, Australia's national youth mental health foundation, says 75 per cent of mental health disorders begin before the age of 25 but 70 per cent of young people who experience mental health and substance use problems do not seek help. The Iemma Government's treatment of mentally ill youth from the Northern Beaches has been nothing short of appalling. I have spoken about this in the Chamber previously. Residents in Yindi House in Freshwater have lived with a cloud over their head as the Government tried to sell the home. Last month these residents suffered a double blow when they received a letter notifying that their rent would double overnight. Notwithstanding the fact that that was retracted once the issue was raised, it is an indictment that we would treat people who are so vulnerable in that way. I want to pay tribute to the staff of the Burdekin Association in Brookvale, particularly Warren Welsh, who for 13 years has been supporting local youth in need. He says 80 per cent of the kids in Garigal Housing have a diagnosed mental illness. However, he says it is increasingly difficult to provide support without the funding. I do not want to finish without making some recommendations. In New South Wales only $6.8 million will be spent each year over the next four years on youth mental health. It seems a paltry amount. Before we give it the budget priority it deserves I make these two suggestions: we need to determine a single point of contact for homeless youth in the maze of governments departments. At present a mentally ill youth may well be dealing with the Department of Housing, Department of Health and Department of Community Services, and this is just at a State level. All these departments may well be operating with the best intentions but often they work independently of each other and bewildered clients know nothing better. They need a champion. They need someone who will join them in their struggle. We also need a summit on youth mental health and homelessness. The statistics say it is getting worse. We need a collective road map that is above politics. It must draw together the experts and we must ensure that the next report does not fall into the ether as the Burdekin report appears to have done. There is often a call for government to remove itself from meddling in the day-to-day life of most residents. In the case of those young, mentally ill and homeless people, they cannot survive without it. [Time expired.]
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