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Hi, I'm Erin, and welcome to the Big Banter in Melbourne.
On Thursday the fourth of June Megan sat down with young people
at Berry Street in Melbourne in a youth consultation
at which she sought to gain insight into the freedoms and rights
these people wished to be protected.
If someone is poor and they want to get into doing a diploma
in- I don't know, something, and then someone is rich
and they can afford it, but that kid can't
and they really want to do it, they should be able to do it
because it's fair.
How does that impact on you
seeing all the different personalities together
working together for the same thing?
I think what you can see is that young people have got a lot to say
and they have got lots of great ideas,
and they're really willing to speak up
if you give them the opportunity to do so.
And it doesn't matter what their background is,
they still have something really important to say.
How often since you first stepped into your new role
have you been holding meetings like this?
I've had quite a few so far.
Officially I started in early June on the Banter,
talking to adults and children and young people.
And so I've been to a few schools, I've been to some settings like this,
some youth centers, some after school care services,
so I've probably seen about quite a few hundred kids so far.
Megan visited the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency.
Here she spoke with young Aboriginal people
to hear their opinions about their rights
and teach them what it is that they are entitled to.
And those laws come up from time to time
for people to think: "well, are they working?"
And what my role will be
is to see if they're working for young people.
And so I need to be able to say:
"Well this is what young people think about these laws.
They're good for them, they're not good for them."
He's saying the same thing through his community.
When young people aren't represented
and do not see themselves as part of the broader sense of society,
it's like holding up a mirror and not seeing the reflection.
Therefore, we all have the same issues.
Our young people are all struggling with the same issues
as every adolescent as we go through,
but yet for us as a cultural group of people
there is no cultural sense of belonging
in how we support ourselves through that.
On Friday, the fifth of June,
Megan attended a children's rights forum
at the Centre of Excellence.
She was accompanied by other adult representatives
in a discussion of current issues in the lives of young people.
These included unbalanced and inefficient care facilities,
cultural stigmatization, and unsympathetic justice systems.
The group developed initiatives
which could ultimately uphold children's rights in our country
and protect them long term.
That's it for me. Be sure to stay tuned and help Megan out
to better the lives of young people all around Australia. See you!