Tuesday, 24 May 2022

Takeover Shepparton

Ms LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (12:42): Last Thursday I attended the red carpet premiere of Takeover Shepparton, an exciting new storytelling and leadership program from the ABC and VicHealth, who worked with local schools and organisations to support over 1000 teenagers from all over Shepparton to speak up about what is important to them, and I would like to congratulate all participants.

The red carpet screening at the Village theatre featured the stories from the 44 winners who were selected to work with the Takeover team to produce stories for the ABC. One of the finalists, Jhett, is a student from the Education First Youth Foyer in Shepparton. Jhett had left school early but has now returned to school. Having access to stable housing in the youth foyer has given Jhett the opportunity to complete his education and will assist him to build a better life for himself. Members will know that I am very proud of the Education First Youth Foyers, which I founded during my term as housing minister. All three youth foyers are changing the lives of young people and are perfect examples of the difference we can make to people’s lives through access to affordable and stable housing and education.

During my term as minister we celebrated the 75th anniversary of public housing in Victoria by telling the stories of many former residents who, having grown up in public housing, went on to become leaders in our community. Last week we saw Anthony Albanese sworn in as our new Prime Minister, and over the past few years we have heard his story of growing up in public housing. I congratulate him on his success and hope his story will be an inspiration to every child in Australia. Both the Prime Minister and Jhett— (Time expired)