Senator Kate Lundy, Shadow Minister for Sport and Youth Affairs, today condemned the Government for its failure to encourage young people to nominate for the National Youth Roundtable.
“The Government’s move to extend the close of nominations because of the clear lack of interest indicated that Australia’s youth were also sceptical of the process and do not believe the Government is serious about listening to their concerns”, Senator Lundy said.
“A couple of ads in newspapers and an internet site is not enough to encourage a wide interest in the Youth Roundtable nor can it be considered a true attempt to get a broad range of nominations. Perhaps that is the Minister’s objective.
“There also needs to be some serious questions asked about the selection process for the 50 young people who will not be elected to the Roundtable but simply selected by the Minister. It will certainly turn out to be a farce if the Minister is in any way partisan in his selection of delegates to the Roundtable.
“You can not expect to properly understand the issues and concerns of Australia’s Youth by simply holding two meetings a year with a Ministerially hand picked group of young people. This is no replacement for a national peak youth group”
“This sort of idea should be an additional measure undertaken by Government for getting in touch with young people instead we see the Government trying to use it as a replacement for a peak youth organisation”, said Senator Lundy
The original close of nominations for the National Youth Roundtable was the end of October but the Government was forced to extend the deadline until 4 December 1998. Senator Lundy is encouraging all people between the ages of 15 and 24 to nominate so that the Minister has a wide variety of people to choose from.
Contact: Matthew Cossey 0412 023334
