weekly hansard - Queensland Parliament - Queensland Government

2568 Matters of Public Interest 23 Aug 2005
across Queensland. I encourage all people to join in, have some fun, laughter and enjoyment with our
seniors.
I hope that our seniors will obviously have good health and improve in their health outcomes. As a
person who is only three years away from being a senior, I hope that, along with my colleagues, we will
have a long and healthy retirement hopefully free of ailments, disease and disability.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Fouras): Order! Before calling the member for Algester, I say that
I am already a senior so I can absolutely understand what you are saying. The member for Algester.
International Conference on Engaging Communities
Ms STRUTHERS (Algester—ALP) (11.54 am): Last week I was pleased to speak at the
Queensland government and United Nations first International Conference on Engaging Communities at
the Brisbane convention centre. I would like to begin by congratulating the organisers of this event,
particularly the Department of Communities and the organising committee. It was a huge success. It
was an amazing conference with more than 1,800 delegates from all over the world including a very
sizable contingent from Asia, India, Sri Lanka and other such countries. It was great to see so many
people coming to this first international event.
What struck me was that many people from all over the world were discussing ways in which
citizens can be more actively involved in democracy and in decision making, but many millions of people
from those countries do not even have a decent roof over their head. They do not even have decent
access to water or food. They do not have jobs and incomes. There were lots of differing needs
discussed because in Queensland we have a Department of Communities and we have a Community
Engagement Division. We have high-level processes for consultation and engagement that are the envy
of many overseas people. It is very hard to reconcile where we are at with our processes and where
other countries are at, with many of them being so oppressed. In Zimbabwae and other countries, for
instance, the people do not have a say in government at all. That government uses violence to stop
people from voting. The differences are very stark. But it is a great credit to the Queensland government
and the Department of Communities that we have very solid processes in place. We have one of the
most advanced and stable democracies in the entire world.
As the Premier has outlined in this parliament before, we have had over 31,000 people attend our
community cabinet meetings. That is a brilliant concept. The response by participants at the community
engagement conference to this concept was amazing. They could not believe that leaders of the
government, including the Premier, would face the music in the way that they do every four to six weeks
in a public forum of that nature. Where people from other countries do not even get to say at all—where
they are violently oppressed from having a say—they found these processes so amazing and
something they would probably never dream of in their own lifetime.
They were in awe of our regional forums and all those sorts of activities that we have here such
as the e-democracy processes. Twenty-two thousand people have signed e-petitions. Eight thousand
people attended the first regional parliamentary sitting in Townsville in September 2000, and we are all
very confident that a similar number of people will attend the upcoming Rockhampton parliamentary
sitting. Again that is an opportunity for people in regional areas in Queensland to meet and greet
members, to have a very direct say and to have an opportunity to talk with the Premier, the ministers
and other members of the government. Importantly, our strategies ensure that all people from all walks
of life have an opportunity to have their say, including people who come from marginalised and
disadvantaged backgrounds.
Today Queenslanders have unprecedented access to their government and ministers. It was
just amazing to see the differences in governments. In fact, I felt very proud of what we are achieving
here. I know there are always problems. No government ever reaches out in the way that all people
would like, and no government makes decisions that all people would like because people differ in their
own views, but we certainly have processes for consultation and processes for engagement that are the
envy of the world.
One of the greatest challenges though, and what I spoke about, was the need for people to
actually participate actively in political processes including political parties. In Australia and throughout
the world, party membership has declined. For instance, in the sixties it stood at about four per cent of
the population in Australia. This has declined to two per cent. That is the common trend across OECD
countries. The greatest challenge is getting young people involved. A survey of young people in 1987
found that those aged 18 to 24 said that they had not much or no interest in politics. In 2000 that figure
had risen to more than 50 per cent. I look forward to the findings of the parliamentary inquiry that we are
having into how we can all better engage with young people. These findings will be very important
because it is certainly young people’s voices we need to hear more of, and it is young people’s voices
that need to be included in the decision making. We certainly have a lot of work to do in that regard.