AYPAC and young people's rights
Comment by Sibylle Kaczorek
CANBERRA — The Australian Youth Policy and Action Coalition (AYPAC) held its national representative board meeting here over three days at the end of October. The board brings together state and territory youth work sector peak organisations and national youth organisations, to discuss and evaluate government initiatives, legislation and policies and develop responses.
While the majority of representatives have vast expertise on youth issues such as accommodation, income, education, health and employment, most of their energy, commitment and enthusiasm is subsumed in media work, submission writing and lobbying politicians.
Considering the potential of the organisations affiliated with AYPAC to educate and mobilise young people, the coalition stands in its own way by solely targeting the government with its activities.
Despite the sophistication of its organisation, structure and research, AYPAC displays an underlying naivete along the lines of "If only we could convince the politicians in power how bad the impact of their policies are on young people and back this up with figures and statistics, they wouldn't go ahead with their proposals".
Anyone involved in activist politics knows that such a view is an illusion at best, a lie at worst.
AYPAC lacks the ability to defeat government initiatives. Its structure and focus on lobbying politicians and departments hinder it.
It is assumed that it is in the best interest of young people to minimise the harm done by particular initiatives. Consequently, AYPAC becomes a "co-owner" of "less harmful" government policies, compromising its opportunity to stand up for youth rights.
Any young person attending a board meeting would be totally alienated by AYPAC's patronising approach. It is patronising because it attempts to act in the best interests of young people, but there is no attempt to encourage young people as a group to speak out for themselves.
For all its potential, AYPAC is yet another bureaucracy — with slightly radical rhetoric — that offers little more than band-aid solutions. Is it possible for AYPAC to take on a more mobilising and campaigning role, leading a process in which young people can participate through action and gain empowerment through numbers?
[Sibylle Kaczorek attended the AYPAC national representative board.]