Young people need supports, funding and action by the Government

Abigail passed a motion calling on the Government to commit to supporting young people affected by the Covid-19 pandemic through funding and by listening to their voices.

Ms ABIGAIL BOYD (10:17): I move:

(1) That this House notes that according to a report by Orygen and Mission Australia entitled Clusters of Covid-19 Impact: Identifying the impact of Covid-19 on young Australians in 2021 published in May 2022, which was based on a national survey of 20,000 people aged 15 to 19 during 2021's pandemic and lockdowns:

(a)more than 70 per cent of students whose studies were disrupted by the pandemic faced high levels of psychological distress;

(b)transgender and gender diverse young people were twice as likely to report adverse mental health effects than their peers;

(c)young people in Victoria and New South Wales were most strongly affected compared to the rest of Australia, with 57 per cent of young people in New South Wales reporting multiple and diverse negative impacts across a range of life domains, including mental health, participation in activities, education, employment, financial security and housing;

(d)there is urgent need for more funding for specialist youth mental health services, such as Headspace, to help young people who are struggling with mental health issues; and

(e)young people and their families are at a significantly high risk of homelessness, and there is an urgent need for increased screening for homelessness in all schools along with increased supports for these individuals and their families.

(2)That this House calls on the Government to:

(a)take direct action to increase funding for and access to publicly funded mental health services for young people, and to improve mental health risk screening and supports offered through schools and workplaces; and

(b)commit to listen to the voices of young people so that the negative impacts of the pandemic do not cause further and ongoing problems for young people.

See the full transcript in Hansard here.

TAX SUPERPROFITS TO PAY WORKERS MORE

NSW is missing out on tens of billions of dollars. By introducing a progressive coal royalty structure similar to the one in Queensland, we would have raised an extra $20 billion last year.

The NSW Government owns and controls, on behalf of the people of this state, the rights to the minerals and materials that naturally occur in NSW land.

Huge fossil fuel companies are only able to extract and sell these commodities with the consent of the State. It’s time they paid a fair price for that privilege.

The fossil fuel industry has made hundreds of billions of dollars out of their cosy relationship with governments. Granted permission to extract and sell coal, these large multinational fossil fuel corporations pay just over 7% in royalties back to the people of NSW – keeping the rest as mega-profits for themselves. These companies have a track record of taking more than their fair share and leaving communities suffering and stranded with poisoned groundwater, devastated landscapes and a stranded workforce when it suits their business models.

Globally, the hyper-inflation of fossil fuel prices driven by price-gouging opportunism and war profiteering from Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has delivered record windfall profits to these already obscenely wealthy corporations. In the last year, NSW coal exports totaled over $70 billion dollars, but the people of NSW will only see about 7 cents in every dollar, or about $6 billion dollars of that amount.

Rather than going toward schools, hospitals and public infrastructure, billions of dollars went into the pockets of multinational mining corporations. The Greens believe there should be more money for schools and hospitals and less for mining billionaires.

Sign our petition calling on the NSW Labor Government to increase coal royalties to invest in communities.

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Young people need supports, funding and action by the Government

TAX SUPERPROFITS TO PAY WORKERS MORE

Sign our petition calling on the NSW Labor Government to increase coal royalties to invest in communities.

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