Young Queenslanders Making Their Mark on Politics

While some teenagers may find politics and governance dull, a group of school students from western Queensland are making their mark on the state's decision-making process. Eight youth councillors from the Blackall-Tambo Youth Council have been advocating for their communities as members of the Queensland Youth Parliament in Brisbane.

The school-aged councillors, aged across grades 6 to 11, serve their region 10 hours west of Brisbane. They have a meeting every two months to discuss new ideas they want to see implemented in their town. In her second year on the Blackall-Tambo Youth Council, 16-year-old Georgia Duncan was elected youth mayor by her fellow councillors.

Under her leadership, the youth council has already achieved its vision of a new dog park for Blackall, unveiling Bark Park in the Central West Queensland town. "We've all noticed that there's no place to run your dogs without a leash and a lot of tourists have dogs," Georgia said.

The youth council toured Brisbane's Parliament House and Government House this week, an excursion the young leader said would inspire new initiatives for Blackall-Tambo. Blackall-Tambo Mayor Andrew Martin said the youth council was an important way to hear from the community.

"What they will have wherever they land is a better perspective on life and they'll be a bigger asset to the community in which they end up residing," he said.

Ava Haine, 19, serves as a youth minister and represents the district of Gregory in Queensland Youth Parliament. "I come from such a lineage of powerful female farmers," she said. "To have a foot in this parliament and be able to speak about their role as more than just a farmer's wife, but as farmers, is so important to me."

Serving as a youth minister across a range of portfolios, including disaster and volunteering, Ms Haine hopes the Disaster Resilience Corps Youth Bill, tabled in youth parliament this week, could grab the attention of politicians in state parliament. "Volunteering in Queensland is down 20 per cent and so we needed a way to incentivise volunteers because we know cost of living is a big thing."

Ms Haine said she had been inspired by Queensland's youngest-ever state MP, Ariana Doolan, who was elected to the seat of Pumicestone in 2024 aged 22. "That is just such a beam of hope that I don't have to wait to get older to participate or have more experience," Ms Haine said.

Young and Resilient Research Centre co-director Philippa Collin from the University of Western Sydney said today's youth were switched on to the world around them. "Young people are very interested in being engaged, having a say and trying to shape the issues," Professor Collin said.

"And they're pretty open to the different forms in which that can take." She said interest in traditional political institutions had dropped, but young people were highly engaged with issues driven by digital and social media.

"We've never had a generation before that is so information rich, that is as educated and has tools at their disposal to access information but also create it and create those networks."

Professor Collin said while youth engagement programs and government advisory councils had increased over the past 15 years, it was critical participants felt heard. "Young people … are pretty finely tuned to whether or not someone's taking them seriously and whether or not their involvement … is a token rather than a substantial shift in the ways in which we govern," she said.