Celebrating Exceptional Leadership

Taihan is a Year 8 student at Pilgrim Campus, he’s also one of 15 young people selected for the Australian Youth Steering Committee set up to help change how government and young people work together.

Dr Anne Aly – the Albanese Govt’s Minister for Youth – opened applications for the Commonwealth Govt’s Youth Steering Committee in October “to enable young Australians to help shape future Australian policies and programs.’

The Youth Steering Committee includes 15 young people from diverse backgrounds across Australia and Taihan flew to Canberra to take part in the first meeting took place on November 22.

It was a great experience and it was amazing to be able to represent my local community and my Footscray High peers at the national level.

The Youth Steering Committee has been tasked with developing a new “Youth Engagement Model” that will give young people a say on government policies and programs.

“Young Australians are uniquely placed to tell us about the problems they are facing and to shape solutions that actually work for them,” Youth Minister Anne Aly said on Saturday.

“Young people make up more than 15 per cent of our population, it’s important we don’t paint them with one brush of being young or disengaged or only caring about one issue.”

There are 15 people on the committee aged between 13 and 24. The youngest is Taihan Rahman from Victoria. They are almost equally split between those aged over 20 and those under 20 and come from every Australian state and territory.

The Albanese government is spending $10.5 million on the new Youth Engagement Model. The funding will be used to set up an Office for Youth which will act as a conduit for policy feedback, and five Youth Advisory Groups to work directly with government agencies.

The Hon Jason Clare MP. 
Minister for Education

Congratulations Taihan!