Readings
NEWS Rock star Rudd lets the flower of youth bloom- The Canberra Times
14/04/2008
Cut the voting age to 16, pay teachers based on their performance, bring public transport to within 2km of every urban Australian, and introduce a scheme to slash the price of life-saving drugs. These are some of the recommendations of the weekend's 2020 Youth Summit, an event described by those who took part as "awesome", "amazing", "inspiring" and "empowering".
At times spontaneously breaking into song, the 100 delegates from all corners of the nation behaved like best friends as the two-day curtain-raiser to this weekend's 2020 Summit came to a close.
One said, "We are going to keep meeting well beyond the summit and make sure these things are done." Another said, "The thing that I am going to take away isn't that young people are the leaders of the future, because it's obvious that young people are leading their communities now. We needn't wait for a time to lead. That time is now."
As former young Australian of the Year Hugh Evans, 24, who founded Australia's first entirely youth-run international aid organisation, read out the communique in Parliament House yesterday afternoon, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd slipped into a seat near the back. He was given a standing ovation: the rock star treatment without the mobbing.
Mr Evans told the crowd that because of Mr Rudd or "Lu Kewe{aac}n" as he said the Prime Minister was known in China young Australians were in a powerful, possibly unique situation.
"We have a strong and committed voice, and Australia's new leadership has an unprecedented appetite to listen to that voice," he said.
As he handed Mr Rudd the 24-page communique, the Prime Minister held it aloft and declared he had "only been back in the country for four hours and already I've got some homework".
Attempting to quieten thunderous applause, he said, "Hi guys. How is everybody? It's good to see you. You know, we in this Government have an old-fashioned view, which is that we don't have a monopoly on wisdom.
"Your ideas will go to next weekend's summit along with 11 of you. And for the ideas that emerge by consensus from the summit, we the Government undertake to respond to every one by the year's end. We will tell you what we can embrace, what we cannot embrace, and the reasons for each.
Peter Martin
