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Last month, I was privileged to be among 100 delegates to the 2020 Youth Summit held in Canberra on 12-13 April. This gathering took place one week before the much bigger 2020 Summit.
I applied to go to the summit because I wanted the Government to hear my views on a number of important issues: foreign policy, climate change, the future Australian economy, Indigenous Australia and refugees.
I was fortunate to be put in a committee right down my alley - Australia's Governance and Australia's Future in the World.
We arrived on Friday, nervous and excited, with people having flown in from all over the country. After an introduction from our co-chairs, the impressive Oaktree Foundation founder, Hugh Evans, and the Minister for Youth, Kate Ellis, we had the first chance to get to know our fellow delegates.
These are some of the most amazing, inspiring people I have ever met and this was definitely the thing I enjoyed most about the summit.
I have never felt so "normal" in my life, being around other young people passionate about government, democracy, community activities, travelling, and other cultures.
The structure of the summit was that we articulated our vision for 2020 for our committee's area (mine was governance and foreign policy) and then brainstormed our ideas to achieve this vision.
It was obvious that we had all put a lot of thought into our ideas in our preparation. Once we realised that many ideas linked with each other, we whittled the list down to four. We then presented these ideas to the rest of the 100 delegates.
On the last day, we voted on one idea for each topic (a total of 10). Our idea for governance was to have automatic voter enrolment as soon as people reach the voting age, to lower the voting age to 16, and to move towards electronic voting at polling booths.
For foreign policy, we put forward an existing concept called 'track2', which was developed by a group of economists and philosophers to improve access to pharmaceutical drugs for people in developing countries.
At the conclusion of the summit, the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, gave a speech and accepted our report.
While I believe the summit was a great initiative, I hope that it was not a political exercise and that the Government will listen to our recommendations, as well as those coming from the 2020 Summit that followed.
My experience at the Youth Summit was an inspiring, unforgettable one, and I hope to continue the friendships that I made there.
Where to from here? This month the Government will hold Australian Youth Forum consultation meetings across Australia, including Sydney. Young people who want to participate can register at http://www.thesource.gov.au/involve/ayf.asp
Matt Moffitt graduated from Bede Polding College, South Windsor, in 2005. He is currently studying a Bachelor of Arts (Dean's Scholars) (Politics & Economics) degree at the University of Wollongong and preparing to go on exchange to Guadalajara, Mexico, on university exchange in July for one year.
