Invested in young people

Fast forward to today, Galea is now an MP for the South-Eastern Metropolitan Region. His early experience profoundly affected him and continues to motivate him to give back to his community today.

'My personal experience, and the reason I'm here today, is because I reached out to my Member of Parliament when I was fourteen years old.' he said.

'It really showed me that there are politicians who are invested in the community and want to see good outcomes.'

Galea advises young Victorians to connect with their local MPs to share concerns and ideas for change.

'Young people should feel comfortable approaching us as Members of Parliament, regardless of whether we are old, young, or somewhere in between.' he said.

'The more young people who speak up, stand up, and voice their opinions, the better we will all be for it. We're only as good as the information we get from the community. These influences greatly impact how we, as Members of Parliament, present ourselves in the chamber and determine our priorities and what we focus on.

'As a general rule of a democratic system, we want everyone to have a say and be heard.'

Sarah Mansfield, Member for Western Victoria, believes that young Victorians should have a more prominent role in decision-making when it comes to issues directly affecting them.

'The decisions being made are really geared towards protecting those who have made wealth from and out of property, whether they are developers or investors, and not thinking about the bigger picture. We now have a generation that is likely to be worse off than previous generations because housing is becoming increasingly unaffordable.' she said.

Mansfield raised concerns over the structures and processes that can provide obstacles to young people engaging with parliament, noting that its formality can be intimidating.

'Although it is meant to be a place for the people, it feels very shut off.' she said.

This can include overlooking the perspectives of young Victorians and failing to recognise the issues they care about.

'Young Victorians might receive praise like, “You're our hope for the future, you'll change the world one day when you replace us.” This is a cop-out because it denies young people's current agency and suggests that they need to wait until they're older or in a position to be heard and create change,' she said.

She is particularly concerned that young people will have to live with the consequences of decisions being made now that will impact their future living standards.

'Like young people have said today: "We want to live in a safe climate. We want the right to a safe climate." But we have decisions being made that are about expanding fossil fuel projects, which is bad for everyone but particularly for our young people because they are going to be living with the direct impacts of those decisions.' she said.

'Unless we find better ways to consider the needs of people who can't currently vote and can't run for Parliament but are probably more impacted by the decisions made now than anyone else, we will continue to prolong systemic inequalities and injustices.'

Over recent years, there have been advancements in promoting youth engagement in parliamentary processes in Victoria, enabling young people to provide their input. Parliamentary committee inquiries into cannabis and into gambling and liquor regulation each held youth roundtables to encourage young people to contribute.

In 2023 Parliament held a youth forum at Parliament House and this year similar forums were held in Shepparton and Kyabram. They provided opportunities for MPs to hear from young people about the issues that matter most to them. The forums also canvassed opportunities for more genuine engagement with young people.

Ways to broaden and diversify the voices that contribute to decision-making is something Annabelle Cleeland, Member for Euroa, sees as crucial so that the socioeconomic conditions and living situations of young Victorians are considered when formulating policies that affect the youth demographic.

'When a bill comes up between the government and the opposition, they'll brief their political parties on the people they've consulted with before they have a position. A lot of the time, it's people who are removed from the impact. They could be lobbyists or political advisers, but we need to get more to the grassroots. Like, who will be impacted by this reform or legislation, and have we spoken to them directly,' she said.

'There are more political advisers than industry advisers. I think we need to be speaking more to what I would see as industry advisers than political advisers because it can be an echo chamber where you are only speaking to the people who work beside you and are isolated from the reality of that policy at times.'

Cleeland sees value in considering more fully the impact that decisions have on young people.

'MPs are going to have to engage better with young people because they will be such an influential voter base in the coming years. We are merely a microphone for our electorate,' she said.

'We are in the midst of a real swing in this space, where there is high disengagement from political parties, but there is also a growing number of young people voting. It can be concerning for younger people to know they are aligning themselves with political parties where they feel their values might not be entirely represented.'

According to Michael Galea, by engaging directly with MPs, young people can contribute to achieving policy reforms that benefit them.

'I believe that almost everyone in Parliament is here with the right intention: to make Victoria a better place to live,’ he said.

‘Although we may have very different ideas on how to achieve that, there are a lot of MPs who are genuinely invested in the community and young people.'