Tuesday, 12 May 2026

 John LISTER (Werribee) (19:07): (1652) My adjournment matter is to the Minister for Youth, and the action I seek is for the minister to visit my electorate to see firsthand the great impact that our investment in young people’s wellbeing is having right across Wyndham. The Werribee electorate is growing rapidly, and it is vital that community infrastructure keeps pace with this growth. Local families and young people deserve access to safe, welcoming and inclusive spaces. I would like to take the minister to visit the Manor Lakes youth resource centre outdoor space project. The project, which we championed in last year’s budget, will provide an enhanced outdoor space for young people to meet up, connect and participate in recreational and community activities. Manor Lakes has had a fairly bad rep, which I think is unfair and unwarranted, and projects like this help give young people better opportunities for inclusion, positive interaction and community involvement. As a teacher and someone who grew up in the Wyndham community I know how important free and accessible spaces are for young people. It can get a bit boring and quite often a lot of the spaces that young people have access to require them to have money or pay to be there, so having a place that is free and has those services adjacent to it through youth resources is really important.

Not every family can afford organised sport activities or programs; however, we are supporting them through our active youth vouchers. Having a safe local place to meet friends and feel connected with the community can make a real difference to that young person’s confidence. Young people in our community deserve places where they feel connected, supported and engaged. The Allan Labor government is not only doing this with our youth resource centre project in partnership with council but continuing to support growing communities like Wyndham by delivering projects that connect us together. We have invested in better education facilities; disability inclusion support, which saw $2.2 billion in the recent state budget; and our violence reduction unit working in local schools, particularly at Manor Lakes College, with our early intervention officers and our sports program that we are running there. I look forward to hosting the minister in my electorate to see for herself the benefits of this important project and the other projects we are doing in the youth support space, and I thank my work experience student Charlie Lark for helping me draft this adjournment tonight.