'Youth Against Hewson' campaign announced
SYDNEY — Liberal leader John Hewson faces an interesting challenge in his electorate of Wentworth with the announcement of a "Youth Against Hewson" campaign.
The campaign, to be run by the Democratic Socialist Electoral League, will stand 20-year-old Zanny Begg against Hewson.
Zanny Begg has been actively involved in community and environmental politics for three years. In June 1990 she addressed the United Nations as the Australian Conservation Foundation's youth delegate to the second meeting of the parties to the United Nations Montreal Protocol on Ozone Depleting Substances.
Later that year, she addressed the meeting of the International Union of Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources as a member of the official Australian government delegation.
Currently an active member of the Environmental Youth Alliance, Begg said her campaign will emphasise the urgent need for alternative ecological policies and practices to those of the major parties which, by serving the interests of big business rather than people, are systematically destroying the planet.
"So long as the federal government, whether it is Labor or Liberal, continues to put profits before people and our environment, young people have every reason to protest in defence of our future", said Begg.
Over the past 12 months, she has also been involved in campaigning around the issue of youth unemployment and against the ALP and Liberal parties' proposals for youth wages of less than $4 an hour. One of the top 500 matriculation students in Victoria in 1990 and a trained graphic design and layout artist, Begg has been unemployed for 13 months.
"Young people are being hurt particularly badly by record unemployment and the abolition of unemployment benefits for 16 and 17-year-olds. The extent of real poverty among youth today is staggering", she said.
"Alongside the slashes in public spending on health and education, the government's refusal to take the AIDS crisis seriously and so on, many young people feel that there is little reason to care. And if it has been bad under the Labor government, it will probably only be worse under a Liberal government.
"We decided to run the Youth Against Hewson campaign because we believe that young people must begin to speak up and take action against the policies and practices of both the major parties before it is too late. The Democratic Socialist campaign in Wentworth is one important step towards creating a stronger progressive alternative which really represents the needs and interests of young people. We urge all young people who want to see things change to get involved, e in the Wentworth electorate."