Thursday, 30 October 2025

 Vicki WARD (Eltham – Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Natural Disaster Recovery, Minister for Equality) (10:07): Young people give energy, creativity and joy to communities, and my 2025 Youth Advisory Council are a perfect example of this. I thank them for working so hard on an outstanding project to raise community awareness about environmental sustainability – their focus of work this year. This included collecting litter from local waterways, parks and schools to highlight the damaging effects of waste in our communities. These fantastic young people transformed the waste they collected into thought-provoking artworks inspired by what they found in the litter. Last Saturday we exhibited in the Eltham town square, and it was fantastic to have the Minister for Environment visit to hear from them about their great work. I thank Adele from Catholic Ladies College, Brayden and Tori from Montmorency Secondary College, Megan and Elliot from St Helena Secondary, Max from Eltham High School and Josh from La Trobe Uni for their dedication, insights and creativity. Our community is proud of their passion and leadership.