Carindale Connect

Note from the editor: The YMCA Queensland Youth Parliament is a Queensland Studies Authority accredited education program for young Queenslanders. The QYP has been providing an apolitical environment where participants can engage with community issues as Youth Representatives of Parliament. We’ve been asking these local  representatives electorates in the region to tell you a bit about themselves. The following is written by Mark Govender the QYP representative for the Greenslopes electorate.

Mark Govender

Having recently attended the Queensland Youth Parliament (QYP) Forum weekend, in which I had the opportunity to meet, interact and socialise with likeminded people, I was afforded a brief yet invaluable insight into an amazing program giving voice to the youth members of society.

Currently, I am a Year 11 student at Cavendish Road State High School and enjoy all the challenges that are presented to me for they all inevitably make me a greater, more mature individual. I formerly played high level sport, am currently engaged in a mixed variety of challenging academic subjects, play guitar and am looking forward to making a contribution towards improving the great state of Queensland, in any ways possible, no matter how small that may be.

Having only recently started my QYP ‘adventure’, I have already found that my capacity to engage socially and speak publically, bundled with the invaluable opportunity presented by being a part of the QYP, has given me the ability to have a voice and a say in improving the future of our great state of Queensland, and I feel having that ability as a youth is the greatest asset any youth can have.

The electorate I am representing is Greenslopes. With Greenslopes being within close proximity of the Brisbane CBD means that it is a rapidly growing area of Brisbane. Although that is good news to most, it brings about various issues from affordability of housing to the increasingly rare on-street,parking available to residents. These are just two of the many issues that I am in the process of drafting and am ultimately endeavouring to raise in Parliament as I feel that these are two issues which will benefit and improve the community as a whole.

I hope I can adequately communicate and represent the wishes of Greenslopes residents whilst in Parliament in an effort to improve our society. Ultimately, I hope to be an engineer, allowing me to improve this great state of Queensland and Australia as a whole.

In summary, I would like to say that, whilst the youth of today may be inexperienced, we all have the tools to make a difference. By standing up and being heard, this QYP program will give you, if you are willing to dedicate the time and the effort, the knowledge of parliamentary procedures and the self-confidence to make a difference and to pursue your dreams. But most importantly, the opportunity to stand up for what you believe in.