DEBATES – Tuesday 18 October 2016

In 1994 my parents made the decision to move from the comfortable life of Batchelor so my older sister, Jocelyn, could complete her final senior years in Darwin at St John’s college. In 1995 we moved to Darwin and I attended the local primary school of Malak. I then attended Sanderson High School and completed my grades 8, 9 and 10.

I picked up a love of soccer in high school, and joined the school team and got into club soccer, which kept me busy on the weekends. I moved to Casuarina Senior College for grades 11 and 12, and in both years was selected to represent the NT at the national schoolgirls competition. One was in Gosford, New South Wales, and the other in , WA.

In Year 12 I was also selected as a Northern Territory representative for the National Youth Roundtable, which was made up of 50 young people around .

Whilst in my senior years of grades 10, 11 and 12, I participated in a program called the Aboriginal and Islander Tertiary Aspirations Program, better known as AITAP. This program focused on developing self- confidence, public speaking—which has come in handy—performing skills, getting over the shame-job factor, and having a go.

People like Tanyah and Joanne Nasir made us students believe in ourselves and rise up to challenges in both the program and our personal lives. Through AITAP I participated in three annual Northern Territory challenges and one Queensland AITAP challenge, and attended various development workshops. AITAP was also how I first connected to the YMCA Youth Parliament.

Teachers’ support in schools was critical in making extracurricular programs a success, and the likes of Bill Rolfe, Tom McCall and Margie Anstess at Sanderson High School supported my involvement in these programs. Another great teacher, Mr Graeme Parker, supported my peers and me at Casuarina Senior College to continue to participate in Youth Parliament.

I participated in Youth Parliament for three years during my senior years. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of returning YMCA taskforce members such as Donald Young, who is here in the gallery today, each year during the program I started thinking more and more about becoming a politician and decided it would be my long-term goal to do so.

It gives me immense joy to stand here before you as an elected member of the Northern Territory parliament when my journey here started 16 years ago as a 15-year-old teenager participating in the YMCA Youth Parliament. My long-term goal is now a reality thanks to the support and encouragement of people around me. Actually, I think it might have been around that seat there; I am pretty close.

My experience at school was a positive one, and I enjoyed the diversity of subjects, creating new friendships and figuring out a little more of who I am. Looking back, as an adult, I guess one of the best parts of growing up where I did meant I was truly part of a multicultural community. At school I had friends from all types of backgrounds, colours, religions, family makeups and languages. I did not realise this was special until I moved to to study a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Education dual degree at the University of Queensland.

In my first year of university I was living on the St Lucia Campus at Duchesne College, which is an all- female residential college with the Catholic faith. This in itself was a new experience for me, as I had never been to boarding school, had always gone to public school and it was co-ed. I had made a handful of friends at college, but mostly my social life revolved around the UQ soccer club and my school mates from Darwin who had moved to Brisbane.

In my first year I joined the debating club and met some people from the Queensland Youth Parliament program. One of the debating organisers encouraged me to apply for the National Youth Parliament held in and join the Queensland team. It was a great experience and kept that little spark inside me, thinking of the possibility of a career in politics as my long-term goal. I also volunteered myself as a task force member for three Northern Territory Youth Parliaments, for two of which I was youth Speaker.

In the second year of my studies I applied to be a UQ Ambassador and was one of seven university students selected to travel to the United States and attend a program called the Renaissance Games, which was held in Kingston, Rhode Island. This program was run by the Institute for International Sport, also known as the IIS. The Renaissance Games was all about excelling in all parts of one’s life, academic, sporting and arts.

33