There is a local filmmaking group using the meeting room in my office for a few months for some workshops they are conducting. They are part of a mentorship program called Mountain of Youth, which is focused on tackling issues of social isolation for at-risk youth through the power of immersive storytelling. I have talked about the program before in this place, but I want to talk about it again, and about our young people more broadly, because it is an important conversation we should all be having.

Mountain of Youth was created by Kalani Gacon and is in its second year. The program had a stellar first run in 2022 with Katoomba High School students, thanks to Kalani's vison and the support and hard work of his production and mentoring team, Riley Saxton and Helena Zadro-Jones. This year the team is working alongside students from Springwood High School. I love the energy this group brings to my office. Members understand the day-to-day workings of an electorate office. It is busy, at times unrelentingly so. There are good days when you and your team feel energised by the work that you do, but then there are days when no matter how strong the desire to fix the ills of the world, you just cannot.

Since the Mountain of Youth crew have taken up residence in my meeting room, there is a feeling of hope emanating from that space, a youthful exuberance that is infectious and a reminder of the possibilities that exist if we open ourselves up to them. My team and I feel buoyed by their presence, and that is having a positive impact on the work that we do for our community. The transition from childhood to adolescence to adulthood is a crucial time for establishing positive social behaviours and interactions. It can be an awkward, vulnerable time for some, when the desire to be different competes alongside an equal if not stronger desire to belong. There is a lot of pressure at this time in one's life to make decisions for the future, to have a plan and to feel certain about how you want your life to unfold. We are discouraged from choosing pathways that are deemed to be impulsive or ill thought out. We are led to believe that if we muck it all up, we will set ourselves up for a tougher journey later in life.

I remember when I was in high school there was a perception that the smart kids went on to do their HSC and those who were less academic finished up in year 10, signed up for an apprenticeship or got themselves into line at the Department of Social Security. It was an incredibly narrow-minded perspective that left no room for the nuances of an individual's potential outside the expected norms. Thankfully that mindset is shifting and there now seems to be an acknowledgment that we must make room for flexibility and diversity, and allow young people to take time to explore what the world has to offer.

Every generation of young people has had their burdens to bear, and, in that sense, this generation is not unique. Our grandparents faced world wars and the Great Depression. When I was a teenager, we lived in fear of nuclear war triggered by global superpowers. That segued into a prolonged, ongoing and paralysing fear of terrorism and its perceived stranglehold on democracy. In more recent times, we faced our fragility as a species when COVID-19 brought the world to a standstill. There is one thing, though, that sets this generation apart in terms of an omnipresent, inescapable challenge: social media.

I am grateful that I grew up in a time before its existence—before the preoccupation with selfies and the pressure to present a version of oneself to the world that is focused on its palatability to others. The world does not appear to underestimate the dangers of this, especially to young, developing minds. But still, the social media circus prevails. It is difficult to ignore the irony of an invention that holds tight to a narrative of connectedness and yet feeds into a growing phenomenon of isolation and disconnect that is arguably shaping our culture like never before.

We all face challenges with climate change and the environment. It is too big an issue to fit into a few brief paragraphs, but I recognise the enormity of what future generations face and I feel a deep sense of sorrow that that burden and its impacts weigh heaviest on the shoulders of our young people. To our youth, I acknowledge the struggles of your time and the challenges that you face as you navigate your way in a world that you did not create. I admire you. I am inspired by your inventiveness, your courage and your spirit. I urge you to keep demanding better from the generation that came before you. Hold us to account in those moments when we talk about handing over the baton to you, especially when the passing on of that responsibility is premature and when there is still more work for your predecessors to do—more work that we are obliged to do. Let us be inspired by our young people.