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Anonymous -
submitted 14/10/2009
The question of youth mental health support networks. In particular concentrating on access to, stigma of and cost of support, and, most importantly, confidentiality.
I think these are really important issues because I don't think that at the moment youth are all that willing to get the support they need because of stigma, cost, or the fact that support groups, counsellors etc are just too hard for them too reach because of transport issues. I see confidentiality as a huge issue facing youth who do seek support. Often they are not told the terms of confidentiality and this leaves us with a feeling of 'why should I talk to this person when they're just going to go and tell other people about me' and that's never a good thing.
In my opinion support systems need to consistently tell the people using them about confidentiality because most people will forget while in therapy etc.
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Anonymous -
submitted 16/10/2009
There is a lot of discussion around the supports provided to underperforming students to keep them in school or to help them meet the (low) national benchmarks. High -performing students are left to their own devises and will either perform well despite the lack of attention or will muck up to gain attention. Incentive programs are often seen by others as rewarding bad behaviour and little or no recognition given to those who exceed the benchmarks, except “extension” work, which is more work, rather than greater challenges.
Perhaps the “education revolution” could really revolutionise the education system and implement an ability-based structure that puts kids in classes based on ability rather than age. Perhaps something could also be done to make automatic scholarships available to all high-achieving university entrants and returning students to better position Australia in the global intellectual picture. Isn’t it time to support the high achievers as well as the underperformers?
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Kousai -
submitted 16/10/2009
How can Australia improve its current asylum-seeking process?
This question is important for many reasons. We as Australians and promoters of individual rights cannot sit down and watch asylum-seekers being detained for extensive periods in prison-like environments. This does not reflect the image of Australia nor should it reflect what Australians believe in. We as a nation, must learn to differentiate between asylum-seekers (those who require this nation's help and protection) and people smugglers.
This is the next big question because this undermines our rights and our beliefs as Australians.
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Jamie -
submitted 16/10/2009
The gap between Indigenous and non-indigenous communities is not only social... its also physical. To most of us, the indigenous situation is intangible and distant; something that we are told about on the news, but cant see in our daily lives. Perhaps if the youth of the two communities had greater opportunity to create friendships (and find out how much they have in common), we could foster a generation of connectedness between the two cultures. This could only advance our awareness of their disadvantage and promote, in our generation, a new proactivity towards addressing the issue. This could be achieved through government funded, interschool exchanges which would occur between indigenous communities and schools in the major cities. Such a program would also be helpful in stamping out any prejudice that may exist between the two cultures.
What do you reckon?
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Mikaela -
submitted 22/10/2009
Decreasing the cost of university degrees. If we want to increase the number of skilled workers in Australia (with a higher-education) then the costs of university need to go down. At the moment it's almost a punishment system - those of us committed to becoming more educated and ultimately adding to Australia's workforce and economy are hit with massive debts. If you want more doctors, engineers, nurses and teachers then you need to lower the fees for universities. It's just not acceptable.
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James -
submitted 22/10/2009
Climate change is the biggest crisis affecting humanity, so much so that it is not an understatement to consider it a global climate emergency. Moreover, climate change relates to many other crises such as food, water, energy, land, ocean, health and overpopulation so solutions must be found that solve these crises as well. Even though climate change is affecting people and species already, the problem will grow to catastrophic problems the longer we wait, endangering future generations.
A target of 350 ppm carbon emissions is the beginning of a plan to get this planet to a safe climate zone. The question is "What should this plan involve?"
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Anonymous -
submitted 22/10/2009
Drug and alcohol rehabilitation.
This is a huge issue for youth and adults alike. There needs to be more funding for services rather than educational advertisments. Integration of services and simply more money put into the sector. Although the teenage years are full of experimentation for all aspects of life, there is so much damage that can be caused by the use and abuse of drugs and alcohol.
Many, many young people get lost along that path and they don't find a way back or the 'recovery' is only partial and deferred, a reliance on something else.
Addiction to drugs or alcohol is physical but that is only the beginning. Peers, environment, past and present trauma, loss of hope, so many things impact on this issue and there is no quick fix or easy answer. One add blitz will not begin to make a difference.
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Ibro -
submitted 22/10/2009
With the cost of housing being so high and so unafordable, why doesn't government fix some of the things that have caused this problem such as:
- remove discount on capital gains tax;
- remove capital gains tax concessions for owner occupied properties;
- remove negative gearing provisions.
Just by doing the above, the government could fix the continuous increase in property prices which has made (and will continue to make) property unaffordable for millions of Australians in the future.
Also, rather than let the prices go down, why has the government encouraged FHBs to buy at the top of the market, and thereby has increased the prices even further.
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Tara Collett-Lee -
submitted 23/10/2009
Through my own experiences with bullying, I think there need to be a change in the way the government, communities, schools and individuals respond. For years I got told "Just ignore it", when it simply is not that simple. It not only affects you mentally but socially, youth today have learnt ways in which to descriminate and socially isolate people with only minor consequences.
I do not know exactly what should be done but I do know something for certain, I will not stop here concerning bullying in youth.
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Brendan -
submitted 23/10/2009
Re-engineering our society to be based on a set of real emotional values rather than the size of your wallet. Valuing highly both the individual and group's rights, roles and responsibilities rather than how much profit can be made. Focussing on personal freedom and responsibility for your own life rather than enforcing external laws and rules.
Everyone should have the right to do whatever they want, so long as it does not impinge upon someone else's right to do the same. That means loosening the reigns on a lot of laws and restrictions we have today that really serve no purpose and/or cause more problems than they solve.
Lets start educating people how to think, how to live a healthy life and how to set and achieve their goals. Lets teach people about emotional values - respect, empathy and love. Its time to drop this idea of winning and losing and instead move to an approach where everyone wins. A simple example is closed book examinations - they serve no purpose whatsoever. There is no other situation in the real world where people need to be able to retain that much information. Instead why not teach how to work together, how to FIND (instead of remember - the internet makes retaining information almost useless) quality information, ask for help when you need it, give help when you can, etc etc.
We need to start balancing the subjective of human experience with the objective of scientific discovery. Otherwise we are only experiencing half of the equation.