Ocean Voices at Meet The Candidates
On Monday 2nd of September I was an official volunteer at the BayFM studio once again helping organise the 2024 Meet The Candidates, hosted by BayFM and The Echo. After carefully curating the printed names and helping out with the other volleys, making sure everything would run smoothly, I sat in the front row to watch Mias Armitage curate a live broadcast event with politicians. I don't know how she did it. I then represented Ocean Voices asking 6 of our possible future mayors “What will you do to give youth a platform to have their voices heard on issues that are important for their future?”
Here is a quick overview of what each candidate had said in order of when their names were pulled out of the hat:
Micheal Lyon wanted to get young people onto the council and handed Max Foggan the stage. He said that he was all about the “Youth representation on the council ... .to represent the entire community” and that he was “standing for the youth west of the highway.”
Lucy Vada wants to “create opportunities for a youth space” and for “youth to make presentations that are important to them to then present to the council.”
David Warth “wants council to engage in regular large meetings to find out what we [youth] would like, the direction that they would like council to go in.”
Elia Hauge, who was on the Byron shire youth council in 2008 wants to “recreate a Byron Shire youth council” and recognises the success of the Youth Say programs which highlighted the need for more on demand bus service for the youth.
Asren Pugh said that there “needs to be spaces for youth to gather north of the shire.” Pugh recognised that Janet Swain would represent the voices from the north and that they were heard. Pugh emphasised that if he was elected mayor it is about “going to where young people are” instead of putting them in a stuffy room as well as “engaging directly.”
Jack Dodds believes youth don't want to engage, instead need “services provided to have a dignified enjoyable life” such as youth mental health and sexual health services which are under-serviced in this area.
This is just a brief synopsis of the answers from the candidates you can listen to more in the link below. Start listening at 8 minutes and 40 seconds to hear my question and the candidate's response. https://omny.fm/shows/community-newsroom/byron-shire-meet-the-candidates-p2-first-nations-y
This event was an extremely engaging event and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the other community member questions and hearing the responses from our future mayors. It was an excellent event hosted by BayFM and the Echo.