“Our Youth Representative Group members really relate to Thomas Emerson; a fellow millennial, he is an energetic and smart young leader and younger parent, he is also prepared to listen, be courageous, and introduce new policies and ideas,” says The Y Canberra Region CEO KIRSTY DIXON.

The Y Canberra Region says it is keeping its eye firmly on its goal of building a better world with and for young people, on Wednesday meeting with Independents for Canberra candidate Thomas Emerson to discuss the issues facing the young people of the ACT, and to develop ways to better tackle these issues. 

“Canberra is a young, forward-thinking city, the median age is just over 35 years, making it the youngest capital city outside of Darwin. Canberra is a city of children, Gen Alphas, Gen Z, and Millennials,” said The Y Canberra Region CEO, Kirsty Dixon.

“As we approach the ACT election, the many issues the younger generation of the ACT face each and every day are of serious concern. We are worried for Canberra children and young people, and our city’s future generations.”

Ms Dixon, together with fellow The Y Canberra Region staff, on Wednesday met with Thomas Emerson, reinforcing that the Y’s young people and Youth Representative Group (YRG) were supportive of independents and the power of the crossbench to introduce fresh new ideas, and better policies.

“Our YRG members really relate to Thomas Emerson, a fellow millennial, he is an energetic and smart young leader and younger parent, he is also prepared to listen, be courageous, and introduce new policies and ideas,” said Ms Dixon.

Tom is striving for “real action, not just talk”, and this included the introduction of innovative legislation such as the Future Generations Act, said Ms Dixon.

The Future Generations Act was world-class public policy and a practical way to introduce accountability into a “forever government”. The UN Summit of the Future adopted the Declaration of Future Generations just last month and called it a “paradigm shift”.

Ms Dixon said The Y Canberra Region met on Wednesday to discuss some very big issues Canberra’s future generations faced, and that being proactive and banding together was likely to see better outcomes than leaving things to chance, especially as voters aged between 18 to 40 years now made up a significant percentage of the voting cohort, yet Canberra’s major party leaders and cabinet ministers were mostly Generation Xers, or older.

She said the statistics were quite concerning for ACT youth:

•  The ACT has the highest average weekly earnings in Australia, yet
9000 children are living below the poverty rate (ACTCOSS, Cost of
 Living Report 2024).  
•The ACT has the poorest performing Australian Early Developmental Census results, outside of the NT, with over half of Canberra children not
developmentally on-track, and up to a third of children in some Canberra
suburbs developmentally vulnerable in at least one development domain (AEDC, 2021).  
•The Anglicare Rental
Affordability Snapshot 2024, found that NO rental properties in the ACT
were affordable for a single young adult on youth allowance.  

Ms Dixon said The Y Canberra Region was working hard to address the needs of young people, with Wednesday’s meeting aligning with the goals set out in The Y’s Strategy 2030, with the aim to empower, connect and support young people in their care, their staff and communities.

The Y Canberra Region’s senior manager of Youth Voice, Sam Duffy-Yates, who oversees the Youth Representative Group (YRG) said: “The ACT is overall a young demographic, and I don’t know a single young person who isn’t affected by the cost of living, housing, mental health, or sustainability stress.”

Ms Dixon also expressed concern with young people having watched governments over the past 20 years make decisions, or worse still, avoid bold ones, about housing, the climate, preventative mental health, youth justice, education and taxation that had actually worked against them and their futures.

“Young people don’t want to listen to older Generation X leaders and cabinet ministers, labelling themselves ‘progressive’, when they see no progress, a safe home, good mental health or a secure planet for themselves. Young people aren’t progressing, many are going backwards,” Ms Dixon said.

Research showed that young people were no-longer voting along party political lines and were more likely to be motivated by cause-related issues and bold policy ideas that took their future seriously, she said.

“What places like Wales and Scotland are doing, it is groundbreaking, these progressive leaders care about the young people’s wellbeing and the planet, and not only are they listening to young people, they are embedding children’s interests in legislation. We think every grandparent and parent would want that for Canberra’s children and grandchildren,” Ms Dixon said.

Canberra was the only territory or state in Australia that did not have a community-based, rather than government-directed, Y Youth Parliament and Youth Voice Ambassador program. The Y hoped to seek support to establish an independent, community-directed Y Youth Parliament to ensure young people and children citizen voices were always heard by the Legislative Assembly.

“It is exciting to see that there are young people, like Tom, who have a genuine drive to put the voices of young people at the forefront, and explore policies and initiate change on issues that young people care about,” Ms Dixon said.

For more information on the Y Canberra Region, visit www.ymcacanberra.org.au  

This sponsored post is authorised by Kirsty Dixon, CEO, The Y Canberra Region