2026 finalists
Year 10
Speeches presented in alphabetical order by first name.
Isabella
Thank you speaker,
Honourable members, if a project is good enough to start, should it not be good enough to finish? If we believe the question matters, should we not be willing to see its answer through?
Over the holidays, I visited a medical research facility. I expected to see equipment running at full capacity, scientists working towards cures, a nation’s pride in motion. Instead I saw something starkly different: scarce scientists, idle machines, unfinished studies. Promising work was cut short not because the science had failed but because the funding had. A half-finished journey that never accomplished the answer.
Towards the end, one of the researchers mentioned something that pained me: “Don’t choose research as a career path if you’re looking for financial stability.” This was crushing. These are pioneers in their field, working on projects that truly benefit humanity, yet discourage younger generations from following in their footsteps. This is not just a career warning. It’s a systemic failure. It means that our system is driving talent away from the very people we need to solve the health crises of the future.
Funds are a profound concern for many in the research sector. According to recent data, 60% of researchers have left active research roles between 2019 to 2024. Furthermore NHMRC data shows that 91.9% of research applications for funding are unsuccessful. This reveals just how pressured the sector is, with institutes warning that funding remains too unstable and too slow to meet the need.
To its credit, the 2026-27 Budget is a step in the right direction. It promises higher medical research spending and a long term strategy for improving the system. But this is not enough. Today I offer a three point solution.
First, lift spending caps faster and sooner, and provide a clear pathway for continuous funding of projects that have shown strong progress, ensuring that excellent projects are not forced to stop halfway. Second, ensure that grants align with the real cost of running modern labs and clinical trials. Currently grants pay for experiments but not enough for support staff and equipment upkeep. Third, create dedicated and more stable programs for early-career researchers and lift overall investment so success rates rise, meaning that projects receive enough funding to be able to start.
Australia likes to present itself as a leader in health and medical research. We celebrate and discuss the future of science. But miracles do not grow from half-funded labs. They do not happen when scientists are forced to live paycheck to paycheck, in underresourced facilities.
This matters for every Australian. It matters for patients hoping for cures, families waiting on answers, Indigenous Australians who deserve culturally safe health research. I am no researcher, health economist or MP but on behalf of every aspiring young scientist, I am asking you to show us that there is still a future for us in Australian medical research. My generation is waiting to see if you will choose to finish what you have started.
Lara
Speaker,
Tonight, somewhere in Australia, an audience will stand and applaud an orchestra that never existed. They will watch a spectacular performance. They will hear a powerful score. They will feel the emotion of a story brought to life. But behind the curtain, there may be no musicians.
For generations, live orchestras have been the heartbeat of Australian theatre. They have
transformed performances into experiences and created moments that audiences remember long after the final curtain falls. Yet increasingly, Australian productions are replacing live musicians with recorded tracks. To some, this may seem like a small change. If the audience hears the same notes, does it really matter?
Speaker, it does.
Because an orchestra is not just about the music we hear. It is about the people who create it. It is about the young violinist practising every evening, hoping one day to perform on a professional stage. It is about the musician who spends years mastering their craft. It is about Australians whose talent and creativity deserve the opportunity to be celebrated.
When we replace musicians with recordings, we do not just lose sound. We lose opportunity.
I represent a generation of young Australians who understand that creativity is not simply a hobby. Across our communities, students learn instruments, perform in productions and dedicate countless hours to developing skills that shape who they are.
But what happens when those young Australians finally reach the stage they have worked towards, only to find fewer opportunities waiting for them?
Speaker, the arts are often treated as something secondary; something valuable… but not essential.
I believe this is a mistake.
The arts are how we tell our stories. They bring communities together, create careers and inspire future generations. They allow Australians to share their experiences and contribute to the culture of our nation.
A nation is not defined only by its technology, its buildings or its economy. It is also defined by the culture it chooses to protect. That is why we must support the future of live performance in Australia. We must invest in music education, strengthen
pathways into creative careers and ensure Australian artists have opportunities to succeed.
This is not about rejecting technology. Technology has an important role in the future of creativity. But we must recognise that some things cannot be replaced. A recording can reproduce a note. But it cannot recreate the energy of musicians responding to one another in real time. It cannot recreate the feeling of people creating something together in the same room.
Speaker, an orchestra is more than a group of musicians. It is a symbol of collaboration, creativity and connection.
One day, the next generation of Australian musicians will look back and ask what we chose to protect. Let us make sure the answer is not a memory. Let us make sure the orchestra can still be heard.
Shawn
Thank you, Speaker.
When the member for Barton, Ash Ambihaipahar, extended her invitation to senior students of our electorate to enter this competition, I knew exactly what I wanted to say.
And it starts in the water. I have spent more than a decade in it. Early mornings staring at the black lines on the bottom of the pool, fuelled by the kind of joy that only comes from touching the wall and knowing you gave everything you had. I am a national finalist in competitive swimming. The water, for me, is not simply where I train. It is where I became who I am now.
I know what the water gives. I am here because too many Australians never get the chance to find out.
Australia tells a story about itself. Summers at the beach. Long weekends on the river. Gold medals won by people who grew up doing exactly what I do. We say that we are a water nation, and yet, 357 Australians drowned in the financial year to June 2025. Twenty-seven per cent above the ten-year average. Rising, not falling.
Members, that is not the story of a water nation. That is the story of a nation that has not made survival in water a right.
And it is not random. Australians in the most disadvantaged communities face double the drowning risk of those in wealthier areas. In regional and remote communities, nearly triple. The water does not discriminate. But access to learning how to survive in it does.
This is not a problem that appears in adulthood either. My fellow Year 10 students, forty per cent of them cannot meet basic Year 6 water safety benchmarks. Not because they chose not to learn. Because no one ever taught them.
I was lucky enough to find the water early. Not every child does. And in a country that built its entire identity on the water, the fact that survival in it comes down to your personal circumstances is not simply bad luck. It is a policy failure that we cannot keep accepting.
Every child in this country learns to read. Every child learns to count. Not because we assumed someone else would handle it. Because we decided, as a nation, that every child deserves those skills regardless of where they live or how wealthy they are. Water safety is no different. It is not a sport or a luxury. In a country surrounded by ocean, where our
summers are built around water, knowing how to survive in it is as essential as any lesson taught in a classroom.
I call on this Parliament to make water safety education a guaranteed part of every child’s schooling: embedded in the national curriculum, funded federally, and delivered through mobile aquatic programs in communities where no pool exists.
Every Australian child deserves to know what the water feels like when it is no longer something to fear.
I urge honourable members to make it so.
Thank you, Speaker.
Zoey – Winner
Watch this winning speech online
Mr. Speaker, before I begin my speech today, I would like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land which we stand on, and pay my respects to Elders past and present.
I want to start with a number. 43%. That’s the proportion of young Australians aged 15–25 who report feeling lonely. Not sometimes. Not just on a bad day. Regularly. One in seven of them have felt this way for more than two years.
Mr. Speaker, this isn’t a personal failing. This is a public health crisis. And it’s happening right now, in our communities, in our suburbs, in our schools, and in our cities.
We are the most digitally connected generation in human history, and yet we’ve never felt more alone. We carry smartphones in our pockets that promise connection, but nearly half of us feel invisible. The research is clear: loneliness doubles the likelihood of psychological distress. It’s linked to early signs of vascular dysfunction in adults as young as 22 years old, and costs our healthcare system $2.7billion every single year.
So what are the causes? Young people told researchers the rising cost of living stops them from meeting friends; cafes close early; transport’s expensive; and a simple catch-up can cost them the extra $50 they don’t have. We are seeing a lack of safe, affordable community spaces where connections can happen naturally. And while social media can be a lifeline for marginalised young people in regional areas, it can also be a place of bullying and exclusion.
We have known about this problem for years. The ACT Legislative Assembly of 2024 held an inquiry into loneliness and social isolation and recommended the establishment of a “‘Loneliness Minister”’. The NSW Parliament has held hearings. Experts are calling for a national strategy.
Mr. Speaker, my generation’s watching. We’re tired of being told that our anxiety, our burnout, our isolation is our own problem to fix.
Because it isn’t.
I’m here today to urge for change. My approach would be to first develop a National Loneliness Strategy, coordinated across health, education and social services. Second, invest in social prescribing, where GPs can connect patients not just to medicine, but to community activities like sporting clubs, and volunteer groups. Third, treat digital wellbeing as a public health priority. We need to teach young people how to navigate social media for genuine connection, not just for consumption.
Mr. Speaker, loneliness is not a weakness. It’s a sign that something in our society is missing. We have the knowledge and the evidence.
What we lack is the will.
To every young Australian watching, I see you. You’re not alone in feeling alone. We have a responsibility to create a society where no citizen is forced into isolation and loneliness. Through small, measured steps, we can work together to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard.
Thank you.
Year 11
Speeches presented in alphabetical order by first name.
Roger – Winner
Watch this winning speech online
Thank you, Speaker.
Mr Speaker, last week I spoke with a 20-year-old constituent named John. Despite studying full-time and working 25 hours a week in retail, John sleeps on a lounge room mattress because he cannot afford a bedroom. He skips meals to pay his share of the electricity bill, studying at the kitchen table at 2 am because his three housemates work night shifts.
John is not an anomaly. He is a symptom of a broken system.
According to the 2024 Anglicare Rental Affordability Snapshot, there is not a single rental property in Australia that is affordable for a young person on Youth Allowance. Tragically, nearly a quarter of all people experiencing homelessness in Australia are aged 12 to 24 years old, and 300,000 young Australians are in severe housing stress.
With housing weighing heavily on their shoulders, how can students maintain the mental bandwidth to thrive? As a Year 11 student, I see this same exhaustion in my friends every day. We are forcing young people to choose between a roof over their
heads and a future in their minds.
It is my honour to represent Mitchell. My goal is to combat the urgent housing crisis facing a generation this government has neglected. As members of parliament, how have we marginalised the future hope of our nation?
What does housing mean for a young person? A place to find safety. A place to study. A place to forge your identity and dream. We are called the Lucky Country, yet few are lucky enough to buy a home.
This country promised the dream of a home if you worked hard. Our young people sacrifice to climb the career ladder, only to face a decade of working without the guarantee of a roof. What are they working for? That promise is broken.
What can be done? We need a framework introducing national rent caps tied to inflation to stop price gouging and permanently banning no-grounds evictions. This means John never has to abandon his degree because his landlord arbitrarily raised the rent, nor live in perpetual fear of a sudden notice to vacate. But protection is only half the battle. This framework must also include a dedicated youth housing fund, partnering with local councils, to build thousands of new, affordable apartments for students and young workers so that supply finally meets demand. We must protect renters today, while
building the homes they need for tomorrow.
We cannot accept a society where the youngest are priced out of their own basic dignity. As the member for Mitchell, I will not let this generation be the first to be worse off than their parents. I will fight for the 300,000 young Australians in severe housing stress.
I will fight for John to finish his degree without going hungry, and to finally afford a bedroom of his own. I will fight to ensure the Lucky Country is a reality for all, not just a lucky few.
Thank you, Speaker.
Ruhan
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
In 1942, Menzies spoke of the Forgotten people: Australians invisible to those in power. 80 years later 1 in 3 Australians are still forgotten.
Mr Speaker, our approach to loneliness has neglected countless Australians. For a long time loneliness has been considered a private issue, yet according to the University of Sydney, it costs Australia 2.7 billion dollars annually in healthcare alone. It is a public health crisis wearing the disguise of a personal one. My argument is simple: loneliness
is not a personal failing. It is a community challenge and this House has a responsibility to respond.
I still remember the time my family migrated to Australia. Coming to a new country with diverse cultures, new people and a strange accent seemed daunting and it took its toll on my mental health. This feeling of isolation followed me for months until I found my place. I share my story today, not to highlight my experience of loneliness. I was lucky.
Mine lasted just months. But for many Australians, loneliness is not a phase. It is not a temporary chapter. It is a lifelong burden. And this feeling of alienation is shared by many in my electorate of Greenway, one of the fastest growing communities in NSW. While their stories may differ from mine, they share the same struggle to build connections and find a sense of belonging.
Mr Speaker, through my correspondence with the Friendship Alliance, I realised that Australia’s response to loneliness is hindered by a fragmented approach, inconsistent coordination and insufficient funding. Australia needs a nationally coordinated loneliness strategy. A strategy that is federally funded, locally delivered, and built alongside the organisations that have been doing this work for years without sufficient support. Mr Speaker, three steps can tackle this. First, we need to appoint a Minister for Social Connection, because loneliness cuts across health, education, employment and
aged care. A minister can ensure that states, territories and organisations work collaboratively. A dedicated minister can fight for funding in the Cabinet. As isolation is a multifaceted problem with no single solution, the government must support grassroots organisations with dedicated funding, to ensure that their work expands to every suburb
in every electorate. Finally, we must embed social prescribing through Medicare. This system can complement medicinal treatment, by referring a patient to a community based activity or service to address the root of their isolation. According to the RACGP, “social prescribing could provide a valuable addition to the existing range of healthcare options in Australia.”
This House carries the voices of 27 million Australians. One in three of them are experiencing loneliness, and they are waiting to be heard.
Loneliness can be mitigated, not through another inquiry, but by a government that finally treats connection as a national priority. If we want a healthy, happy and hopeful Australia, we need to act now. Mr Speaker, the forgotten people are still waiting. It is time we remembered them.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Thomas
Three years ago, if you had given me a button that would make me straight, I would have pressed it without hesitation.
Mr Speaker, I did not want that because of who I was. I wanted it because of where I was.
Our own Bureau of Statistics estimates that nearly one in ten Australians aged 16 to 24 are LGBTI+. A study from La Trobe University found that, of over six thousand LGBTQA+ young people surveyed, more than a third missed days of school because
they felt unsafe. Among the sixteen and seventeen year olds surveyed, more than half reported suicidal ideation within twelve months. And researchers who looked at where those young people live found that in rural and remote Australia, the distress and the
harassment both run higher.
I know that country. I grew up on a property outside Young.
One summer, the dam out the back cracked so badly you could walk across the bottom of it. The mud had split into plates, curled at the edges like old paint. My father stood at the bank and looked at it for a long time. “Everything’s still here,” he said. “It’s just waiting for rain.”
Without rain, grass does not die dramatically. It retreats. It pulls whatever life it has left below the surface, where the heat cannot reach it.
That is what those numbers are describing. Not young people who have given up, but young people who have worked out that the safest version of themselves is the one nobody can see. They are not gone. They are hidden.
The land had not failed, Mr Speaker. The conditions had.
Most droughts are not caused by anybody. They are caused by the rain that never came – the conversation never had, the name never spoken. Absence. But a young person underground cannot tell the difference between someone who wishes them harm and someone who simply never thought to make it rain.
We know how to change conditions in this country. We did it with seatbelts, with sunburn, with drink driving. Not by passing a rule and hoping, but by putting a message in front of people, year after year, until what everyone assumed had quietly shifted.
I believe we should do it again. Properly funded education in our schools, and national campaigns that carry past the classroom and into the places these young people live. Saying something simple. That what these young people feel is love, no different from anyone else’s.
Three years ago I would have pressed that button.
I did not, because I was taken out of that paddock and put somewhere it rained. Nothing about me changed. My parents had been telling me the same thing for years. I was finally somewhere where I was able to hear it.
That is all it takes. Not a cure. Conditions.
To any young person still underground: everything is still there. It is just waiting.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Zahra
Thank you, Speaker.
I rise for the first time as the Member for Blaxland, humbled by the trust of my constituents and determined to repay it.
Blaxland is a community rich in ambition. From Auburn to Guildford, families have crossed borders, rebuilt lives and worked relentlessly to give their children greater opportunity. Yet in our community, ambition is too often limited not by talent, but by
access to childcare.
I know this because one of those families is mine. When my parents separated, my mother raised my two younger brothers and me. She worked, cared for us and held our family together. But during the school holidays, that careful balance collapsed. Her work did not disappear when school closed. So, I stepped up, not only as a daughter, but as a carer.
I am proud that I could help. But no child should have to become the missing piece in our childcare system, and no parent should have to rely on extraordinary sacrifice simply to remain at work.
This is not only my family’s story. Research from Victoria University’s Mitchell Institute defines a “childcare desert” as an area with more than three children for every available place. Almost half of Western Sydney falls within that definition.
For Guildford mother Tasmia Rahman, that statistic became a two-year waiting list. Unable to secure care for her five-month-old son, her household was forced from two incomes to one. She said, “It’s very stressful because you want to get back to work.” Her experience exposes the real cost of childcare scarcity: lost wages, declining wellbeing and
parents pushed out of jobs they are ready and qualified to do.
The consequences are already visible. Female workforce participation in Western Sydney stands at 65 percent, compared with 76 percent across the rest of Sydney. That eleven-point gap represents thousands of women whose skills, earnings and economic independence remain constrained. Women, particularly single mothers and women from
migrant and refugee communities, bear this burden most heavily. But the consequences reach further. Employers lose skilled workers, household budgets shrink and our national economy loses productive capacity. Childcare is not a peripheral family matter.
Speaker, we must treat childcare for what it truly is: essential economic infrastructure. That means the Commonwealth working with states, local communities and providers to fund new places where need is greatest. It means strengthening fee relief for low- and middle-income families. And it means valuing the childcare workforce through better pay, training and career pathways.
Speaker, my mother remains my first role model and my greatest one. She is extraordinary. But she should never have needed to be superhuman simply to make ends meet.
The people of Blaxland do not ask this Parliament to remove the work of raising a family. They ask that opportunity no longer depend on whether a childcare place happens to be available. Their ambition is already here. It is now the responsibility of this House to stop locking it out.
Thank you, Speaker.
Year 12
Speeches presented in alphabetical order by first name.
Jess – Winner
Watch this winning speech online
Changing Lives of the Next Generation!
Dear Mr Speaker,
I am standing here today to advocate for the human rights of Deaf people. I want you to picture a world of isolation, a world that you cannot access. For many deaf and hard of hearing children across the country, that is their reality.
I am one of the privileged Deaf Australians. I can communicate in two languages: Australian Sign Language (Auslan) and English. Auslan is everything to me. Auslan means identity, community, and culture.
For the first 13 years of my life, I did not sign. I struggled to communicate and connect with people, and I often wondered, “Where do I belong?” But that changed when I attended a Deaf school. I learnt Auslan and joined the Australian Deaf community. That community is where I feel at home.
We are all human, regardless of our journeys, and we all deserve access to language. Language helps us feel proud and confident in who we are.
The Deaf community experiences barriers every day, and I want to change that.
Audiologists, speech pathologists, and early intervention specialists support many deaf and hard of hearing children. They advise families about technology and how to improve their hearing.
However, the focus is often on how to “fix” the child. Because of this focus, some specialists never encourage or even mention sign language to the families.
Deaf awareness training and a Deaf studies unit should be included in their qualifications. This would ensure they are educated about the lives, culture, and community of Deaf people. They would then have the knowledge needed to fully advise families about the importance of sign language and the significant benefits of being connected to the Deaf community.
In 1880, the Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf (ICED) took place in Milan, Italy, where it was agreed that oral education should be encouraged over sign language, effectively excluding sign language from many educational settings. This policy remained influential for almost 130 years. An apology was made to the Deaf community at the 21st International Congress of the Deaf in Vancouver, Canada in 2010.
But some of the negative attitudes and opinions about sign language still haven’t changed…………
Sign language should be offered as a legitimate option alongside technology. This will provide children with access to language, community, and identity.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Nicholas
Thank you Mr Speaker, it is an honour to speak in this chamber for the first time. I believe that for generations, this Parliament has represented what is best about Australia. It is one of the only places in which every electorate, every community and every Australian has a voice. In this House, the vote of the most senior minister carries the exact same weight as that of the newest member. That simple truth is one of the greatest strengths of our democracy. But whilst every Australian has an equal vote, not every Australian has an equal opportunity.
Mr Speaker that fact can be seen nowhere clearer than in our nation’s housing crisis. This issue is one deeply personal to me. In 2022, the height of the South East Queensland housing crisis, the rental home my family had lived in for almost a decade
sold. Suddenly, we found ourselves without certainty and without security. Rental properties at the time were few and far between, not to mention the few that were available were often unrealistic to my family financially. We did not know where we would go, or even if we would have a home. However, thanks to the determination of my parents and the support of local charities such as the Salvation Army and the St Vincent de Paul society, my family and I found stability again. I am also aware that I was part of a minority as my family was fortunate. Many others are not.
Tonight, more than 122,000 Australian will experience homelessness, 40% of these people are under the age of 25. How can we call ourselves the lucky country while we allow so many of our own to do it tough. Mr Speaker a home is not a luxury. It is a basic human right and the foundation upon which Australians have built their lives for centuries. But as a young person standing in this chamber I bring something new, hope. Hope that if all work hard, we can make a difference. We have the power in this place to turn this crisis on its head.
We can do this by increasing housing supply, supporting pathways into home ownership and continue ensuring that every Australian is treated with dignity. Mr Speaker, this is not a partisan issue. It is not left-wing issue, and it is not a right-wing issue. This is an Australian issue. It is an Australian issue because every Australian deserves a roof over
their head, because every Australian deserves a warm bed and because every Australian deserves a safe place to call home.
In my personal Catholic faith Luke 12:49 reminds us “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded”. Mr Speaker, every Australian deserves not only a voice in this Parliament, but a place to call home. I have always seen Australia at its best, when Australians look out for one another. That is the Australia I believe in, and that is the
Australia I will fight for.
Raye
Thank you, Speaker.
I stand here as the newly elected Member for Moncrieff, humbled by the trust my community has placed in me, and am determined to use this place to speak for those whose voices too rarely reach it.
I want to start with a boy I know. Smart, Funny. The kind of person who fills a room without really trying. At sixteen, he started going quiet… The jokes stopped. Texts stopped. And so one day I asked him how he was really doing. And he just looked at me.
He had no idea where to start. Not because something was wrong with him. But because no one had ever handed him the tools.
Speaker, I rise today to talk about the persistent failure to equip young Australian men with the emotional vocabulary they need to understand themselves. This is not a speech about weakness. It is not a speech about gender differences. It is a speech about what we have never bothered to teach.
From the moment many boys are old enough to graze a knee, they receive a consistent cultural education to stay calm and toughen up.
Feelings are acknowledged briefly but then packed away. And by the time those boys become young men, bearing more pressure, fractured friendships or questions of identity. They find themselves with no map whatsoever.
The consequences are not abstract. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2,529 men died by suicide in 2024 at a rate of 18.3 per 100,000. Males accounting for over three quarters of all suicide deaths in this country. And at around fifteen, the gender gap begins to emerge, boys accounting for nearly two in three teenage suicides.
Something shifts at fifteen. And I do not think it is a coincidence that fifteen is precisely when the cultural pressure to perform stoicism hardens. These are not inevitable outcomes. They are the result of a gap in how we educate young men. A gap we have chosen, year after year, not to close. Because somewhere along the way, emotional
literacy got labelled as soft.
The research is not ambiguous. Young people who can identify and regulate their emotions perform better academically, build more stable relationships, and are far less likely to reach crisis point before they reach out. This is not sentiment. This is decades
of science.
Other countries have moved. The United Kingdom has embedded social and emotional learning into its national curriculum. Finland trains teachers explicitly in this space. We are not short on evidence. Instead we are short on urgency.
So I bring to the attention of this House a clear ask. I urge the Minister for Education to work with state counterparts to make emotional literacy a genuine, funded part of the Australian Curriculum. Not a Wednesday morning afterthought, but a real investment in the young men this parliament exists to serve. Because the alternative, another generation of boys fluent in everything except themselves is not a tradition worth keeping.
Thank you, Speaker.
Trang
When I was ten years old, a boy in my class looked at me and said, “Your dad works in a factory making all the toys in China.” The classroom laughed. I do not share this story to invite sympathy, nor to suggest that my experience was exceptional. I’m sharing it because it was ordinary. Australia proudly describes itself as one of the world’s most successful multicultural democracies. We celebrate over 300 languages spoken in our homes, and the diversity that has shaped our national identity. We often tell ourselves that racism belongs to our past—that it ended with the White Australia Policy and now exists only at the fringes of society.
But for many Australians, that is not the Australia they experience. As the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, I understand what it means to grow up between two worlds: to cherish the culture your parents sacrificed to preserve, while striving to belong in the country they sacrificed everything to build a future in. It’s shared by millions of Australians whose families crossed oceans believing that Australia was a place where hard work mattered more than heritage.
They’re the reason I stand in this House today, not to ask Australians to ignore our differences, but to build a country where those differences are never a reason for someone to feel they don’t belong. Research by Australian National University tells us that over 82% of Asian Australians report experiencing discrimination, the highest rate of self-reported discrimination of any ethnic group in Australia. Nearly 60% have experienced discrimination when interacting with government and public events.
These figures should concern every member of this House.
Madam Speaker, history has shown how quickly prejudice can resurface in times of uncertainty. During the COVID-19 pandemic, across the country, racial abuse and harassment increased, with around 60% of reported incidents involving verbal or physical attacks. For too long our response to racism has been reactive rather than preventive. We condemn racist incidents after they occur, yet we fail to dismantle the conditions that allow prejudice to flourish in the first place.
If we’re serious about building an Australia where every citizen belongs, then symbolic statements are not enough. We must strengthen anti-discrimination protections through a more accessible and enforceable complaints system under the Racial Discrimination Act, ensuring that justice is not available only to those with the resources to pursue it.
We must invest in compulsory anti-racism and cultural competency education throughout our schools. This allows students to naturally learn to appreciate diverse cultures. We must expand funding for community-led organisations that support
multicultural Australians experiencing racism, strengthen multicultural mental health services, and ensure law enforcement agencies are equipped to identify and respond appropriately to racially motivated crimes.
And when any Australian is made to feel like they do not belong because of the colour of their skin, the language spoken at home, or the heritage reflected in their name, it’s not only that individual who is diminished.
It’s the nation we aspire to be.