An Australian framework for embedding young people in government decision-making

Engage! A strategy to include young people in the decisions we make

Published by
The Office for Youth, Australian Government
2024

Front cover of the Strategy

What it’s about
Sets out the strategy for how Australian policy makers will embed youth voice into government decision-making. It includes a vision, priorities, specific actions and how evaluation will occur.

My key takeaways
I think it nails some of the biggest issues young people have often come up against when having their voices heard by people in power. It looks at a range of ways for young people to engage with government and access information.

The actions are straight forward: annual National Youth forum, Youth Survey, Youth Advisory Groups (with multiple specific groups on key topics) and a Youth Steering Committee are fantastic ways to have ongoing touchpoints with young people. I’d love to hear more about how they will ensure these are meaningful, accessible and authentic for the young people involved.

I love the new digital youth hub and updated social media channels - I think this will provide stronger messages to young people where they’re at.

There is also real funding going towards recognition of young people through awards, plus support for the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition (AYAC), which had its funding slashed throughout 2010s.

Most importantly, evaluation is embedded in this whole strategy. I think it’s a good start, with a mixture of qualitative and quantitative measures. I’d be interested to see how young people’s views of the Australian Government change as a result of a strategy like this, I think there’s a big challenge ahead.

Final thoughts

This Strategy makes me hopeful. It’s laid out clearly and has some ambitious goals. I’d like to see some of the strategies and learnings the Office for Youth have for initiatives like the National Youth Forum and Youth Advisory Groups. There are many other agencies and governments trying to do the same thing, so providing shared learnings on how governments can do this better would benefit everyone.