Consultation Key Outcomes
The consultations gave us a wide range of views on the role and purpose of the AYF. The common themes from all the consultation sessions were used to develop the AYF.
These main themes are:
- Universality and Accessibility – the AYF will operate with the understanding that young people have a wide range of life experiences, needs, views and ideas. The Government wants the AYF to be universal in its relevance and accessible to all young Australians.
- Engagement – in order to be effective, governments must stop ‘talking to’ young people and start ‘engaging with’ them in a meaningful way. The AYF respects and understands the value of young people and the contributions they can offer as citizens now, not just the leaders of tomorrow.
- Inclusion – the AYF will aim to reach out to young people who are disadvantaged or marginalised. It will also aim to engage those young people who, in the past, may have been excluded from opportunities to express their views to Government.
- Outcomes – it was clear from the consultations that young people and the youth sector want well defined feedback methods to ensure that the ideas and views expressed through the AYF are heard and considered. An important feature of the AYF is the strong links between the youth engagement activities, the national youth peak and the Australian Government, which will make sure that ideas are exchanged and feedback is given by the Government. This website will be one of the ways the Australian Government can provide feedback on the contributions.
Priority Youth Issues
We also asked for comments on issues of concern and importance to young people. The list below, while not in any particular order, demonstrates the wide range of issues that young people thought were important. It also demonstrates that young people are not just concerned or interested in what have traditionally been classed as ‘youth issues’.
- Access to appropriate services (ability to navigate the system)
- Access to recreation and purpose built youth spaces
- Bullying (including cyber) and peer pressure
- Child abuse and neglect issues
- Democratic participation
- Driving
- Drugs and alcohol abuse
- Education and training – primary/secondary and tertiary (including Voluntary Student Unionism and fees)
- Environmental sustainability/change
- Family breakdown
- Finance
- Health and wellbeing
- Homelessness and housing affordability
- Indigenous issues
- Jobs and employment
- Meaningful work opportunities
- Mental health (including body image)
- Multicultural youth issues
- Political empowerment
- Racism and discrimination
- Regional issues and rural community support
- Safe and sustainable housing environments
- Safe environments/safe communities
- Settlement of humanitarian arrivals of young people
- Social inclusion
- Student poverty
- Support during transition to independent living
- Workforce participation – obstacles experienced through disability, illness cultural or language differences
- Workplace issues
- Young people taking action in their community and wider society
- Youth unemployment
