Today I served the Lions Club as a volunteer judge for their annual event Youth of the Year. I’m so glad I did.
I was given an incredible opportunity to get a look into the lives of three of our exceptional young people from Northern Tasmania, to talk with them about their achievements and to quiz them on their dreams, goals and aspirations for their own future and our shared future as Tasmanians and Australians.
Competitors had already each won their local club level competitions and were now appearing in the regional (Northern) final. Ben, Amparo and Emily are all students in local colleges and were asked to list their achievements in leadership, academic, sporting and cultural fields. They were also required to attend an interview with the judging panel (of which I was a member), present a prepared speech on a topic of their choosing and finally to present two (2 minute) speeches on topics given to them with no time to prepare.
One of the impromptu questions in particular resulted in three particularly insightful responses:
What do you see for the future of Tasmania, and how can this best be achieved?
The students had to answer this question without any opportunity to sit and think about their answers, and were not able to hear the contributions from other students. The remarkable thing was the coherent, intelligent responses as well as the strong level of agreement between them. Incredible really.
Themes brought out included:
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- harnessing Tasmania’s potential as a beautiful and well-managed natural environment;
- encouraging non-Tasmanians to visit and encourage our tourism sector, using the carrot of visiting one of the finest places on Earth;
- ensuring a quality of life for our own Tasmanians (that is, not to forget our own people in the push to attract tourists);
- protecting our environment while defending industries and local jobs; and
- quality of life for Tasmanians.
Now just remember these had to come in at less than two minutes each and with zero preparation. They performed admirably and reminded me just how fantastic are our young people and the enormous potential they have to grow, develop and contribute to the wider community. (We are often presented with negative impressions of young people generally which is a false stereotype.)
My vision for Tasmania is very similar, and I like to articulate it in a few brief, meaningful words. My vision is to see the people of Tasmania become the happiest people, enjoying the best quality of life in Australia. This is a gutsy vision, and reaches high. But I’m sticking to it – in part because of my concern for the future of young people like Ben, Amporo, Emily and my own children. They all deserve our support and encouragement.
Congratulations to each of them, and in particular to Emily Ingram, who has progressed to the statewide final and will represent all young people from Northern Tasmania admirably. Good luck!
