Sydney Youth Forum Live Stream: NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian Q&A with young Sydneysiders
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian was asked all the tough questions during the Sydney Youth Forum with students grilling her on a range of issues from housing affordability and education to climate change.
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STUDENTS as young as 13 said they were already worried about house prices and wanted schools to start teaching them “real life” skills as they grilled the NSW Premier yesterday .
High school, TAFE and university students didn’t let Gladys Berejiklian off easy at The Daily Telegraph’s youth forum pressing her on everything from unemployment to climate change.
Channel Seven’s Michael Usher at the start of the Live Stream announced The Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph and NewsLocal aimed to create 1000 work experience placements in 30 days during the Project Sydney campaign.
The event, which was moderated by The Daily Telegraph political editor Andrew Clennell, scored more than 15,000views on The Daily Telegraph and Channel Seven’s live streams combined.
Property proved a hot topic, with just two students putting their hands up when they were asked if they thought they’d ever be able to afford a home.
Ms Berejiklian told the audience she was hopeful her new stamp duty measures, which give first-home buyers discounts on stamp duty on properties up to $800,000, would help more young people enter the market.
But she also told the students they needed to think about getting their foot in the door, rather than buying their dream home.
“Once you’re in the market you don’t mind if housing prices goes up,” she said.
“Your first place isn’t always going to be your best place”.
But the students didn’t seem conviced, Merrylands High School’s Ricardo Fernandez, 13, afterwards told The Daily Telegraph he was still worried he would spent his life renting.
“The prices keep increasing and it will be even harder when I’m older,” he said.
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TAFE student Paniora Nukunuku questioned the Premier on how she would ensure high school was more “life skills based”.
Mr Nukunuku, 23, revealed he and his family became homeless when he was 17 and he left school without knowing basic skills like how to fill in a tax form.
“I feel like school from my experience didn’t prepare me for life,” he told her.
The Premier told Mr Nukunuku she would personally raise the issue with the Education Minister and said he could join her in a sit down with him.
“I think there is opportunities for us to better prepare people for what they’re going to face when they leave school and I’m certainly going to speak with the Education Minister about what we’re doing and if that’s not enough I would like to see that addressed,” she said.
“When I finished school I was in the same boat to an extent, because ( I wasn’t taught) basic things like filling out a tax return or getting insurance on a car, basic things I hadn’t been exposed to previously .”
Mr Nukunuku said he would be following the Premier up on her offer.
“It was good to have a politician that was prepared to hear my story,” Mr Nukunuku said.
“I still have more questions, but I was happy with her answer.”
Lauren Churchill, 18, is a TAFE graduate and asked the Premier what she was doing to make sure more students saw TAFE as an option.
“I left school in year 11 and it wasn’t a positive experience for me. TAFE was then fantastic and I learnt hands on skills,” she said.
“I don’t think dropping out of high school should just be seen as a negative thing.”
Ms Berejiklian said she wanted students to feel they didn’t have to go to university if TAFE or apprenticeships represented better options. She also said she wanted to focus on skills based education.
“We want to make sure the skills that are being provided are what the industries want, there’s no point in having people qualified if it’s not going to get them a job,” she said.
Psychology student Simon Preuss-Kearney grilled the Premier on rail link funding for the Badgerys Creek airport- when she revealed there would be funding for roads in the upcoming Budget but no funding for the rail line as of yet.
“I think you need a long term plan, not just a short term plan that looks like a long term plan,” Mr Preuss Kearney said.
The Premier also revealed the NSW Government would introduce a container scheme to help tackle environmental issues, saying her parents were anti-environment “20 years ago” but nowadays if the wrong thing went go into the wrong recycling container there was drama.
The Sydney Youth Forum was hosted by The Daily Telegraph’s State Political Editor Andrew Clennell and Channel 7’s Michael Usher at Western Sydney University’s new Parramatta campus.
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