Representing young people at the United Nations.
The Australian Youth Representative Program elevates the experiences of young people across Australia by creating spaces for them to explore, discover, and understand the issues most important to them and their communities.
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Every day, young people's experiences, opinions and knowledge are misrepresented within our global society
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Within the realm of minimal design, every element serves a purpose, and every detail is meticulously curated.
Welcome to the 2024 Youth Representative Report!
In 2024, UN Youth Australia once again coordinated its annual consultation tour, the ‘Listening Tour’, to discover the issues that are most important to young Australians today.
This Report showcases what the youth experience really is, by capturing over 2000 perspectives from young Australians across every state and territory, across rural and urban communities, and from diverse backgrounds and identities.
This Report gives people of all spheres of work an insight into how young eyes view the world around them, and the change they do not yet see. We invite you to explore this Report, engage with its findings, and continue ensuring that young voices transcend into key spaces for decision-making.
Report Contributors
Author and Program Executive
Vasil Samardzhiev
Co-Authors
Jordan Ng
Rehansa Gamagedara
Content Contributors
Imogen Connors
Monique Westcott
Nasteho Said
Annabelle Keon
Editors
Megan Hince
Joanna Barry-Murphy
Caleb Henley
A special thank you to the 2024 Youth Representative Team, as well as to every young person who shared their perspectives this year!
Hear from the Report Author, Vasil Samardzhiev:
Watch the Report Launch Event:
Coming Soon!
01
The 'youth experience' cannot be summarised in a finite list of easy-to-articulate issues.
Our research does not limit the amount of issues that a single young Australian can bring to our attention as important to them. As a result, many young people picked multiple issues as “the most important”.
02
Young Australians really care about everything - and this makes sense!
Greater access to information, particularly through the Internet, has built bridges for young people to connect between state, territory, national and continental borders. As a result, they have been able to see and sympathise with people enduring struggles that are not present in their own local community.
03
Young people are attuned to the connections that exist in the issues they face.
For example, it’s true that their ability to build a successful career hinges on succeeding in their studies, but it also is dependent on the economic climate, the availability of their desired job in their local community, and so much more. This makes it difficult to simply point to one issue as the most crucial for policy-makers to address right now.
Even then, young people point to 4 key tools that can make a dent in many issues:
Education
that is accessible and of high quality is a powerful tool to empower young people to understand their struggles and tackle the pressing challenges of today.
Financial Security
is similarly a pre-condition for individuals to be resilient in times of crises, and a foundation for a sustainable nation.
Mental Health
pressures often emerge when young people are faced with issues outside of their control. Developments in this area are essential to creating a supportive environment for young people to grow.
Climate Change
continues to have a direct impact on the systems that young people need to thrive, meaning it must be at the forefront of a future-driven policy-making.
The 2024 Youth Representative Report showcases these key tools in depth, providing connections between them and the honest sentiments of young Australians. These concerns, we find, are relatively consistent nation-wide, however, we have additional sections bringing light to unique struggles that young people face in each state and territory.
We created the Youth Representative Program as a centre of truth-telling, driven by young people
Since 1999, the Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations embarks annually on a Listening Tour, Australia’s largest face-to-face consultation of young people aged 12 to 25. Listening Tour Consultations bring together young people from across Australia’s diverse and varied communities to share their visions, challenges, and perspectives on current domestic and international issues and opportunities.
The Youth Representative leads these consultations as interactive, activity-based discussions to identify how local and global issues affect young people in their unique contexts and environments.
Sharing Australia's Youth Experiences at the United Nations
Australia’s youth experiences and perspectives shared during the Listening Tour are analysed and reported on to the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly, the Australian Government, and the Australian and International Community.
Each September, the Youth Representative delivers an address to the Third Committee as a representative of Australia. They join the Australian Mission to the United Nations (New York Office) to be the youth voice and advisor in debates, negotiations, and strategy work around topical global issues, particularly those impacting young people.
Coming Soon!
2025 Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations
We have almost completed our rigorous selection process for the next Australian Youth Representative! Stay tuned for our official announcement in January!
Attend a Listening Tour Consultation!
Consultations for the 2025 Listening Tour are now being planned. Take a look at the opportunities to interact with our Youth Representative available, and keep up to date as we add more engagement dates in the future.
If you are a young person looking to organise a consultation for your group, or an organisation looking to host a consultation, please fill out an Expression of Interest (EOI) through this form (click here).
Mailing List
We would love to take you along on our journey. By signing up to our mailing list, you will receive monthly updates from the Youth Representative themselves, as well as exclusive promotional videos and graphics that you can share to help further the reach of our program and involve more of your community.
Take the Survey
You can tell us a bit about yourself, your opinions on several topical issues and life across Australia, your top issues and why, and your message to the United Nations. We take your anonymous responses and voice them to the United Nations and Australian community, including decision-makers in government.
Get in touch!
Need to contact the Program or UN Youth Australia? Fill in a contact request form and our team will be back in touch with you!
Media Enquiries
For media enquiries, please contact communications@unyouth.org.au.
Contacting about a consultation
If you wish to organise a consultation, please contact listeningtour@unyouth.org.au.
General Enquiries
For general enquiries, please call the Chief Youth Representation Officer, Vasil Samardzhiev at cyro@unyouth.org.au.
Your information will be treated in accordance with our privacy policy.