Underage drinking, public transport, L-plate drivers and homelessness are the main issues affecting youth in the Eurobodalla.
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Eurobodalla Youth Committee members have taken it upon themselves to make sure these issues are addressed by lobbying for more appropriate rules surrounding Learner driver’s licences, and planning to target underage drinking at their Youth Week major event, Aamplify, next year.
Committee members Lizy McCarter, Ryan Toohey and Jacob Wray said young people turned to alcohol because there was nothing else to do.
“If there is a party going on, people who like to drink will drink, but the kids who don’t feel like it will do it because there’s nothing else to do,” Lizy said. “People see it as cool.”
“I think underage drinking is a by-product of boredom,” Jacob said. “Creating entertainment venues for young people, developing local employment opportunities and encouraging youth participation in the community would decrease the number of underage drinkers.”
The Youth Committee members are also a part of the Southern Regional Youth Council, which includes Cooma, Shoalhaven and Bega councils.
“We have recently been lobbying for a change in L-plate laws to try to get the hours reduced without affecting the road toll,” Lizy said.
Their proposal was to make L-plate laws similar to P-plates, so learners would have L1 and L2 plates.
Lizy said drivers would hold an L1 plate for three months, with a minimum of 30 hours’ driving and an 80km/h speed limit, and then progress after passing a test to obtain an L2 licence for nine months, where the limit would be 90km/h but there wouldn’t be a set number of hours.
“They’d just have to be able to pass the P’s test,” she said.
Ryan said they wanted to increase the speed limit for L2s because 80km/h was too slow, especially on country roads.
“It promotes road rage,” he said. “People just overtake on double yellow lines.”
The Youth Committee members said making it easier to obtain a driver’s licence was important in a place where there was limited public transport.
“Public transport is one of the most significant issues currently affecting young people in regional areas because it limits a young person’s ability to access education, employment and social activities,” Jacob, who is also a member of the NSW Youth Advisory Council, said.
“This limitation, I think, leads to many other problems such as underage drinking, youth violence and civic disengagement.”
The Eurobodalla Youth Committee participated in Mission Australia’s youth survey last month, which was designed to determine the major issues affecting young people across the country.
Last year’s survey found that drugs, suicide and body image were major concerns for young people in Australia.
However, Jacob said these weren’t as prevalent as underage drinking, poor public transport and lack of employment opportunities in the Eurobodalla.
“I think that drugs and suicide are still a concern, while body image issues are not as prevalent,” he said. “In my experience, the majority of young people who use drugs use them rarely and recreationally. Suicide is a concern and the mental health treatment of young people needs to be improved.”