I gave the statement to the UN last Thursday. It was in the General Assembly room. It was absolutely incredible to stand up in this beautiful hall and share these experiences. My speech was devised solely on what young Australians from around the country have told me.

After I delivered the speech, the Guatemalan Ambassador sought me out and said it was one of the best statements she had heard at the UN (although, potentially not a hard thing to do, as many statements are pretty dry!). Yeah!

Thankyou to all the people who played a part in making this happen. Read on, and I hope you enjoy.

Mr President,

As Australia’s Youth Representative, I am honoured with the opportunity to address you today. Just for something a little bit different, I won’t speak to you about the World Program of Action for Youth, but rather I will be speaking about young Australians.

I have travelled the length and breadth of my country, chatting with young people and asking them what is important to young Australians. It is my humble privilege to bring you their voices.

Before I begin, I would like to share with you the voices of two groups of Australian young people. The first day is in an Australian Aboriginal community called Warmun, nearly 1000 km from the closest large city. Here, a group of young boys are surrounded by dilapidated houses, dirt streets crammed with rubbish, and peers who have never seen the inside of a school. The very next day, in a very different setting, 400 young people are crammed into the Town Hall of a large capital city where they are surrounded by tall multi million dollar buildings and the latest technology. Yet, despite the disparate nature of these two groups, both overwhelmingly assert that the two biggest issues facing the world today are the crisis in Iraq and continuing poverty in our world. This, in the case of the young Aboriginal boys, despite their own extreme challenges.

Australia is a proudly multicultural country. While our Indigenous peoples have called Australia home for more than 60 000 years, the evolving kaleidoscope of Australian life has seen many new faces become part of Australia in the last few years. The essence of Australian multiculturalism is that we don’t all look the same and we don’t all sound the same – but we are all Australian. It is our unity in our diversity, that ties our dreams together.

While Australia’s young people are diverse in colour, creed and geography, their voices reflect the unity that binds this country. In particular, they overwhelmingly communicated three basic needs: the need for a sense of community, the need for a sense of safety and the need for a purpose.

Australia is overwhelmingly a country of community. Beyond the over-arching community of ‘being Australian’, we have many smaller communities - rural towns, suburbs, schools, football clubs. I have found that for Australian young people, the drive to be part of a community, whatever form that takes, supersedes all else. The need to find a place to belong is the most powerful force in shaping who we are.

Yet as I found, this drive for community conflicts with the other great desires of Australian young people, that is, the desires for safety and purpose.

In various areas of Australia, young people told me of the unrelenting violence that exists in their home. In rural Australia, young people told me of the lack of opportunities present in their community. Youth unemployment is soaring, educational opportunities pale in comparison to those offered in metropolitan areas, and recreation facilities are often considerably underdeveloped.

However, in response to my queries as to why they would choose to stay, all I received were baffled looks. This is their home, they told me, this is where their family and friends are, this is where they belong - this is their community. They could try to seek opportunities elsewhere, but would find the transition too difficult, and return to their place of belonging. The draw of their community is powerful.

If it is community that is so powerful for young people, the foremost role of our society must be to enable these young people to, firstly, remain in their communities, but more importantly, be able to reach their full potential within a safe and purposeful existence.

One vital way to create communities that support and nurture young people is to include young people in the decision-making process. The Australian government supports many programs such as Youth Advisory Councils and the National Youth Roundtable, which offer young people a meaningful opportunity to dialogue with and advise those who make decisions on their behalf. Young Australians want to not only be kept informed of what decisions are being made on their behalf, but also be involved in those decisions that affect their lives.

It is clear to me that when given half a chance, young people have the most tremendous capacity to shape their own existence. Here are just three examples that I encountered:

• A few months ago, 2 teenagers organised a youth conference in rural Australia to enable other young Australians who live in the outback, to meet and share opportunities.
• A young Australian in a seemingly depressed town in Northern Australia has recently created his community’s first youth group in an attempt to offer his peers alternatives to unemployment and drugs.
• A group of Australian Aboriginal young women have created a dancing group in an extremely isolated community, and thus, providing teenage girls with an opportunity to participate meaningfully in their community.

Listening to young people, and providing services that cater to their needs for purpose and security, is of central importance to the future of communities of all sizes, anywhere in the world.

Importantly, however, as I travelled around Australia, meeting and talking with my peers, it is frighteningly apparent that many young Australians still have little idea of how to have their voices heard in their community. This brings me to my final point, regarding personal well-being.

In a country like Australia, where many people have their basic human needs met, issues surrounding mental health and, more specifically, Depression, have become a serious concern. In 2005, one in four young Australian women, and one in six young Australian men will suffer Depression. These figures are staggering. If these young people do not know feel engaged in their community or able to have their voices heard within their community – the results can impact on a very real level. Australia’s high suicide rate is testament to this.

As a young man who has experienced the powerless depths of Depression myself, I can vouch for the importance of being heard. Listening to young people, and providing services that cater to their needs for purpose and security, is of central importance to the future of communities of all sizes, anywhere in the world.

As Australia’s Youth Representative to the United Nations, I met countless young people who were captivated by the opportunity to have their voices heard at the United Nations. To be heard in the highest forum in the world is an opportunity without peer, especially for young people who may have never thought that their voice was valuable or worthy.

Youth representatives have the unique potential to bring voices from the ground to the highest decision-making body in the world. It is unique. It has the potential to change the United Nations from an abstract notion in young people’s minds, to a genuine entity in the souls of countless young people all around the world. There is nothing more vital to the prosperity of the United Nations that a new generation of people believing that the United Nations is listening to them and acting on behalf of them. I urge your country to consider including a youth representative in your delegation to the United Nations.

Thank you for this opportunity today. There are countless young Australians who feel valued, merely because you listened to me today.

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In other news, the applications are open for the 2006 Australian Youth Representative. You can check it out at www.unya.asn.au I highly recommend it.

:-)
Benny