The Wellspring

Kate Smith has posted an interesting article to YouthGAS that underscores the difficulty that many organisations have in administering an appropriate selection process for youth representative positions, resulting in some rather counter-intuitive outcomes. I’ve tried to contact Kate to discuss this with her in further detail, but haven’t received a response (Kate, if you’ve come upon this, contact me!). Here is her article in its entirety:

Youth for Youth?

How has one young Australian managed to hang onto the role of Australian ‘youth representative’ to the Pacific Youth Caucus, despite no longer being a ‘young person’? The United Nations definition of youth, is a person aged between 15-25 and Australian government has long followed this definition, which was recently demonstrated by the age cut off for invitations to the 2020 Youth Summit held in April this year.

The ego-centric nature of youth affairs often creates an ‘every man for himself’ attitude, where young people hoard opportunities to ‘represent’ their demographic at local, national and international events.
Matthew Albert and his continuing appointment as Australia’s Youth Representative to the Pacific Youth Caucus is exemplary of this. Albert has carefully hoarded an opportunity, which should have been passed onto to a ‘young’ person after he turned 25.

How can Albert, a practicing lawyer at the Supreme Court of Victoria, who will turn 28 in August this year, be said to represent young people in Australia?

The Rudd government has confirmed that Albert will remain in this quasi-diplomatic role, which he was appointed to during the Howard years, until 2009.

Since surpassing the age of 25, care of the Australian government, Albert has been flown to Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands and New Zealand and Sri Lanka in his role as Australia’s representative to the Pacific Youth Caucus.

It is particularly interesting to note that Albert was not invited to attend the 2020 youth summit, presumably because he was over the age of 25. This is despite Albert going on to Sri Lanka a week later to represent Australian youth at the Commonwealth Youth Caucus.

Recently, Albert has been appointed within the Commonwealth youth body to the position of pan-Commonwealth Chair, a prestigious role in world youth political affairs.

In October this year, Albert is relocating to London, to complete a Masters degree at Oxford. From England, he will continue to represent Australian young people at Commonwealth regional and international levels.

Australian young people - what do you think?

Update (7 June 2008): Nukutau Pokura, the Chair of the Pacific Regional Youth Caucus, has responded to Kate Smith’s letter:

Dear Ms. Smith
Thank you for your concerns and although I cannot speak for the youth of Australia, I would like to make some clarifications as Chairperson of the Pacific Regional Youth Caucus (RYC) to the matter that you’ve raised especially from the viewpoint of the RYC and the Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP) South Pacific (SP) Centre.

‘Youth’ as defined by the CYP constitute young women and men aged 15 – 29 years. Hence Mr. Albert is still eligible to be a member of the Pacific RYC. The re nomination of Mr. Albert to the RYC by the Australia government is the prerogative of the Australia government and falls within the normal selection criteria that all Commonwealth Governments of the world are expected to follow when selecting a RYC representative for their respective countries. This is clearly stated in the Handbook on Commonwealth Youth Representatives (Revised 2007) which reads,

“A Regional Youth Caucus Member is appointed for an initial term of two years and also be allowed to serve for another term of two years depending on their availability and willingness to serve as well as on a full assessment of their performance by the concerned member government and CYP regional centre.”

Your accusation of Mr. Albert ‘hoarding’ every opportunity for himself is considered by me as your right to your opinion but advice that you make the attempt to learn a bit more about what Mr. Albert has been doing for the young people of Australia since he became a member of the RYC even if his activities involve Sudanese migrants.

We the RYC members see Mr. Albert’s renomination differently; we see continuity, we see plans translating into activities that are actually completed and not half done plans and activities due to short appointments.

Finally we see a young person in CYP terms, being ‘empowered’ by the many opportunities that were facilitated for him (provision of enabling conditions for youth empowerment) by the CYP SP Centre in his RYC membership role.

Mr. Albert attended the Sri Lanka Meetings in a South Pacific regional capacity, specifically as the Pacific RYC’s nomination for the Pan Commonwealth Chairpersonship. The recent Pan Com chairperson and vice chairperson election in Sri Lanka was extra important to the South Pacific region because the Chair and Vice Chair positions were being rotated to the Pacific region for the next four years. This is the normal policy of the CYP that the four CYP regional centres of the world take turns in chairing the Pan Commonwealth Youth Caucus. Mr. Albert therefore did not attend as a representative of the Australia government although he had the blessing of the Australia government to contest for the Pan Commonwealth Chair on behalf of the Pacific RYC.

Mr. Albert never made a secret of his relocation to London this year and announced this in his ‘maiden’ speech immediately after his elections. His time in London is not viewed negatively by the RYC in fact he will be doing a lot more for the young people of the Pacific countries in terms of increased interaction with the CYP Pan Commonwealth Office in London on the many international matters that are expected to be implemented by the CYP regional centres and their respective RYCs. Mr. Albert will be able to provide clarity and provide directions on many of these to the South Pacific.

While Mr. Albert’s entry into the RYC has been as the Australia youth representative, there is an undocumented/silent expectation of Pacific countries that a major role of the two countries RYC members’ is to assist the smaller, poorer, more vulnerable states of the Pacific in accessing resources from Australia and New Zealand to assist the young people of the Pacific countries. This is also the general expectation of the governments of the Pacific Commonwealth countries to Australia and New Zealand.

If the youths of Australia are so disadvantaged, I suggest that you Ms. Smith should rally support from all the other young people of Australia to support Matthew in providing him with the national focus that you are so concerned about. All that we in the Pacific RYC know is that Matthew is performing that role very well. But as bystanders I strongly recommend that you forget about what may not have been and concentrate on creating a national environment that will support the work of Mr. Albert and provide him with the directions to serve you better.

Ms. Nukutau Pokura
RYC Chairperson.