Since the Australian Labor Government was elected we have been providing young people with the opportunity to contribute to the direction of our nation on a scale never seen before.

We have delivered on our commitment to reinstate the Minister for Youth and establish an Office for Youth within the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. We have also provided funding to help re-establish the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition (AYAC) to ensure that young people have a platform that is independent of Government to put forward their ideas.

In support of our commitment to giving young people a voice in decision making, we have invested $8 million to establish the Australian Youth Forum (AYF). Since its inception almost 5,000 young Australians have been involved in AYF events and there have been more than 115,000 individual visits to the AYF website.
 

The Australian Government is placing young people at the centre of Government policy making and ensuring that all areas of Government have a view to how their decisions will affect young Australians.

In 2010 the Government developed the first ever National Strategy for Young Australians to help guide future government policy making and ensure that young people’s needs and perspectives are taken into account in all Government business. 

The National Strategy for Young Australians reaffirms the commitment we all share to ensure that young people develop the confidence, resilience and skills they need to be involved and productive citizens. The Strategy sets out the Government’s vision for young Australians and provides a blueprint for across-Government collaboration to achieve that vision.

In pursuit of this commitment the Government has:

 - Invested $155 million to support out-of-trade Australian Apprentices and will encourage the use of Australian Apprentices in Government infrastructure projects.  A further $500 million investment under the Better Universities Renewal Fund will help universities rebuild their campus infrastructure.

 - Worked hand in hand with the States and Territories to overhaul the nation’s youth programs in order to improve educational outcomes and better support young people in their transition from school to work or further study through the $623 million National Partnership on Youth Attainment and Transitions.

 - Provided a $723 million investment in the National Partnership on Youth Attainment and Transitions that involves two new programs aimed at assisting young people who have disconnected from school or work and building better partnerships between schools, community and business.

 - Taken immediate action to shield young people from the full impact of the global downturn by establishing the $277 million Compact with Young Australians to guarantee all young people aged under 25 with an education or training place.

 - Committed to ongoing work to reform student income support arrangements so that more young Australians enrolled in higher education will be eligible for Youth Allowance and support is directed to those who need it most.

 - Given additional funding of $35.6 million to Headspace, the National Youth Mental Health Foundation, to continue its vital work on youth mental health.

 - Provided $10 million for the creation of Arts, Business and Community Centres for Young Australians, delivering on one of the top ten ideas from the Youth 2020 Summit. The Centres will connect young people with employment, community and useful personal networks.

 - Introduced a Clean Sustainable Skills Package that includes a 10,000 member National Green Corps to provide environmental work experience and training for out-of-work Australians aged 18 to 24 years and 4,000 training places for insulation installers.

 - Committed $490 million over five years to the Medicare Teen Dental Plan.  258,203 teenagers had received a dental check up under this initiative by 30 December 2008.

 - Introduced a Voluntary Code of Conduct on Body Image and a supporting awards scheme to encourage the fashion, media and modelling industries to take positive action and promote positive body image messages to young Australians. 

Go to http://www.youth.gov.au/ , the one stop shop for Young Australians for more information.