Speech to New Generations Conference

Kingsgate Centre, Auckland

Ladies and gentlemen, Rotarians - good afternoon, and thank you for the invitation to speak to you here today.

I hope that your forum this morning was successful, and I look forward to hearing about your discussions.

It is great to see so many young people, getting together to discuss the issues and challenges that are facing our generation. There are many challenges, but there is also much to celebrate.

Well, before I go much further I should explain a bit about myself, who I am and where I came from.

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As you will all know, it isn't easy being young! I'm young, and it sure doesn't always help me in politics. I constantly get quoted in papers and the media, and that's fine, but they always seem to put Deborah Morris, comma, aged 26. Why? Do you ever read Jim Bolger, age 62, Winston Peters, age 52 or Jenny Shipley, age 45?

No.

The media have made a thing about my age, and in some ways that's good, as it shows young people that I'm here for them. But, you need to ask, why do they say this? Is it because they think I'm too young?

Well, if they do think I am too young for the job, they're in for a shocker of a time. Yes I am young, that doesn't mean I'm stupid, naive or unable to do my job. Actually in my job, I believe that youthfulness is an asset.

So even when you get to the grand age of 26, it's still tough being young - but hey you can also have a lot of fun!

But sometimes, that having fun gets us into a bit of trouble. I'm sure you will have all seen the headlines recently. There have been many news stories about drunken youths on the rampage, youth crime, drugs in schools, bullying, and I could go on.

These stories are a bit depressing.

I need to ask you all - when did you last see a good news story in the newspaper, on the radio, or on TV, about young people?

There aren't many good news stories about young people published. This annoys me greatly. All we hear is the young people did this, and that, and that this is terrible... but we never hear the positive stuff. There is positive stuff out there, in fact there is much to celebrate, but it just doesn't get published.

I see one of my main roles as Minister of Youth Affairs, not only to represent you all in Parliament and at Cabinet, but to also to put across your views to the media and the public as a whole. It's not going to be easy, but I'm going to try and tell them that you are the good guys!

But, I'm going to need your help. And this is why I'm going to issue a challenge to you.

I want you to all leave here today, go back to your schools, and your youth club, if you are involved in one, and tell them all about this youth forum. Tell them what you discussed today, and get their input too.

Then, I want you and others to get together and spread the word. Spread the word about what you want, what you feel, what you like, what you don't like, and how you want to do things.

Now, this can't be a quiet, hidden in the corner, secret squirrel club. I need you to shout. I need you to shout real loud. Shout at me, shout at your MP, shout at your local councillors, shout at the media, shout at your teachers and shout at your youth organisations.

You see, I believe in young people. I believe that young people need a better chance. I believe that only young people can deliver that themselves.

What I am aiming for is real youth participation and decision making in our communities. I say communities, because that is where I believe we should start. We should start to look at our local environment and see what we can do there first. What do you want for young people in Auckland? What do you want to be able to do? What do you want to be allowed to do?

In order for this to happen, you're going to have to do some work yourselves, and start to lobby people who have the power to make a change.

Eventually, I'd like to see a National Youth Council re-emerge in New Zealand, but that can only happen once we have a strong structure of local youth councils that are out there, doing stuff, for and by young people.

Hopefully through sessions like this one, we can encourage this kind of atmosphere, but I do need your commitment.

I promise to speak out for you in Government. I promise to work to improve the image of young people in the media. I promise to monitor Government actions, and their effects on young people. I promise to listen to young people.

These are fairly big promises for a politician to make, and these are followed by a whole range of commitments that we have already made to New Zealand, in our Coalition Agreement, between New Zealand First and National.

So, in return for my promises, I want you to commit to do things for yourselves. I also want you to go out there and lobby for what you want. This isn't a political thing, well at least not in a Party sense. This is about ensuring that we are looking after, and planning for, our and future generations.

Already, there is heaps happening out there for young people. But I still here the constant cry of "there is nothing to do here". This is sometimes true, and when it is, go out and rant and rave about it. In some cases though, it's just difficult to find out what is happening, what you can do, where you can go to do it, and what support is already out there.

In order to help tackle this, I've decided to call a Youth Summit within the next twelve months. I will invite to this Summit, politicians, councillors, youth workers, officials, policy analysts and, most importantly , young people.

The Summit will focus on young people, and how Government can work with you, and what needs to be done to better coordinate services for young people.

We'll look at policies, legislation and practices. We'll look at what's available for young people. We'll look at the support services that are available, and we'll try to create much better networks within the youth field, to ensure better coverage and awareness of what's out there.

My final aim of the Youth Summit is to create a vision for youth. A vision for the year 2020. That vision will belong to young people, and will guide not only Government work through the next millennium, but will also guide what is happening at a local level. This will be about a partnership, because Government can't do it on its own. It will be about a partnership between Government, business, local government, community groups, youth organisations and young people.

You may have heard me doing my own shouting out a bit. And I should share a secret with you here. I've only been in Parliament since October last year, and in fact, it didn't meet until December, and that was only for a couple of days. When we returned after Christmas, each new MP had to give what is called their "Maiden Speech" - their first speech to Parliament.

The Maiden Speech is always a nerve racking experience, but it was especially so for me, because, not only was I a new MP, but I was also a Minister.

I did a bit of shouting out for young people then, and I've done it a fair bit since. But, my secret to you is, that I was a bit scared!

I still am. Not quite as much, but I tell you, I'm beginning to think that public speaking is always nerve racking. However, someone once told me, that very often the audience is more nervous than the speaker, and then, if the speaker makes a mistake, or fluffs her lines, then apparently the audience is more embarrassed than the speaker!

Anyway, I hope I haven't made too many mistakes as your Minister so far, the last thing I want to do is to embarrass you all!

One of the things I have been shouting out about is the need for a consistent age for the time when a young person is given full adult status.

I've been lobbying for that age to be 18.

Under current proposals from Jenny Shipley and the Land Transport and Safety Authority, the driving age will be increased to 17, and you will not be able to gain your full driving license until you are 18 years old.

I have also been lobbying for the legal age to buy alcohol to be lowered to 18 years old.

Now, I've come in for some stick over this, but I believe it is the right move. I want to recognise that young people, in fact, probably a lot of you, are drinking alcohol. However, I want to ensure that this is being done safely and responsibly.

I want to start taking a risk management approach to drinking, and encourage safe and sensible drinking.

I also want there to be a system of identification so that you can prove your age, and so that you can't buy alcohol unless you are actually 18.

I'm still not sure what is going to happen to this idea. A submission from the Alcohol Advisory Council has gone to the Justice Minister, Doug Graham, and he will hopefully release the report later this month. One of their recommendations may be to reduce the age to purchase alcohol to 18 years.

Watch this space!

So, that's a couple of things that I've been involved in. I've been working for you in Parliament. But it's now over to you.

As I said earlier, you need to go out get busy and make a noise. I'll join you, but I can't do it by myself.

So, as the advert says .... Just Do It!

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