Senator STOTT DESPOJA(10.02 p.m.) —It is quite an honour to follow Senator Lundy's speech. It was great and I would like to think that many more people in this place would be willing to stand up and assert themselves as feminists in this chamber, especially on the conservative side of politics. Hear us roar.

It was also quite interesting to listen to Senator McGauran's speech but, unlike Senator McGauran, I will not be quoting poetry. What I do rise to speak about tonight is a book that I had the honour to launch two weeks ago with a colleague from the House of Representatives, Rod Sawford, the member for Port Adelaide. It is entitled Seen and Heard and nicknamed `A foolproof guide to the youth vote'. Undoubtedly, this has been targeted at politicians, both state and federal. It is a project undertaken by young Australians aged 15 to 26. It took over six months to compile a list of their responses to issues affecting them.

This book is a wonderful counter to some of the negative stereotypes we have recently seen perpetuated in the media, and in this place, of young Australians. It certainly is a book that celebrates the wit, diversity, humour, and talent and skills of young people, specifically in South Australia.

These young people were asked to pretend they were ministers and say what they would do if they were a minister, be it the minister for the environment, the minister for love or the minister for economics. They were also asked what they thought of politicians. Some of their responses as to how young people see politicians are worth noting. The words they used were: `get rich,' `mud slinging,' `have long holidays,' beef themselves up,' `mostly male,' `tell lies,' `make promises,' `get to the top and then get toppled,'`stress out,' `are boring,' `act like kids' and `their travel allowances are too high'.

I think no-one in this chamber would deny the fact that young Australians, and perhaps Australians generally, view politicians with a degree of scepticism and perhaps disillusionment. That is something, of course, we all should be working to counter, along with families, teachers and parents. On that note, I do express my concern that civics education funding has been frozen under this government, albeit, I acknowledge, with a promise that a new program will start. Certainly, we will not start to redress the lack of electoral awareness in our community, and especially among young Australians, if we do not have such programs operating in schools.

The Seen and Heard project mostly used the visual medium of cartoons and some drawings. These were displayed in the Port Adelaide Community Youth Centre. They were over six feet high, beautifully and wonderfully coloured. I would like to think that perhaps that exhibition could be a travelling one and we could see it here in Parliament House at some stage.

I seek to leave to table this booklet because I think it says much more than I could about it. Of course, that is the idea of it. I imagine all politicians in this place will be receiving a copy from the Youth Affairs Council of South Australia.

I do ask politicians in both houses to acknowledge some of the comments that these young people have made in relation to participation. Some of the comments include: `young people are not acknowledged on a political level;' `many of us feel that we do not know enough about our choices when it comes to voting;' `a lot of us just tick any old box.' I appeal to many colleagues to read the document. I end my contribution this evening with a quote from a voice bubble in one of the cartoons in the book. Someone says:

`If I had the chance to be a politician, I wouldn't. I would go and play basketball.

I seek leave to table this booklet.

Leave granted.