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Summary
Youth Affairs Council Victoria (YACVic) welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Inquiry into Community Consultation Practices in Victoria.
As the peak body for young people and the youth sector in Victoria, a key part of YACVic’s work is elevating the voices of young people to government and ensuring our advice is based on meaningful youth participation. Young people have a right to participate in decision-making that affects them, and our vision is to ensure young people are respected, and they are active, visible and valued in their communities.
Young people are the experts of their own lives, and have the contemporary, real-world knowledge and experience of issues and opportunities impacting them and their communities. However, young people’s voices are largely underrepresented in community consultation, often misrepresented or tokenised, and rarely included in government decision-making. Too often, young people are left out of the conversation, they are given limited meaningful opportunities to contribute, or discussions are held too late as a ‘tick box’ exercise. Excluding young people from community responses can lead to feelings of disconnection, alienation, and disengagement from both the community and democratic processes.
Involving young people is about understanding their unique perspectives and experiences and making sure more underrepresented voices are heard – so government can make informed policy decisions, and strengthen community trust, connection, and transparency. Further, young people have unique and valuable perspectives which are sometimes missed by adults, but which their peers may relate and respond to. They are often creative, innovative, and forward-thinking, bringing a lens of intergenerational equity to policy solutions.
Meaningful youth consultation requires giving young people a seat at the table, involving them from the start, and creating safe environments for them to grow and learn to contribute meaningfully. Young people are leaders in their own right, and giving them a seat at the table builds their capacity and skills to engage with policy development and community leadership.
It makes sense to speak with young people, not for them, and for them to speak for themselves.
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This submission is based on the voices of young people and youth workers supporting young people through our Youth Participation Practice Network (YPPN).
Our recommendations align with Victoria’s Youth Strategy, Our Promise, Your Future, and Victoria’s Child Safe Standards.
Recommendations for the Victorian Government:
Recommendation 1:
Strengthen youth consultation practices in line with best practice for meaningful youth participation, as outlined in the Youth Engagement Resource Platform (YERP) developed by YACVic. This includes:
- Engaging young people at the beginning
- Ensuring consultations are accessible and inclusive
- Skilled and youth-led facilitation
- Building transparency and closing the feedback loop
- Remunerating young people
Recommendation 2:
Strengthen consultation practices with First Nations young people in line with the Values, Knowledge and Actions set out in ‘Wayipunga’, KYC’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth participation framework.
Recommendation 3:
Strengthen consultation practices with multicultural young people in line with 'Not just ticking a box', the Multicultural Youth Advocacy Network's resource and CMY's 'Inclusive Organisations Good Practice Guide' for engaging and supporting youth participation with young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds.
Recommendation 4:
Extend consultation timeframes to a minimum of 10 weeks to allow for meaningful youth engagement and outcomes.
Recommendation 5:
Improve transparency by clearly stating what assumptions have been made about young people and what research and data has been used to design the consultation approaches.
Recommendation 6:
Avoid tokenism and consultation fatigue by clearly stating the purpose of engagement, how input will be used, and provide feedback to youth participants to show their contributions are valued.
Recommendation 7:
Involve young people in the design and distribution of promotional material of consultations to ensure they are youth-specific, including using social media to promote opportunities.
Recommendation 8:
Prioritise inclusive outreach to underrepresented young people, building on partnerships with youth organisations and community services to reach young people who may not be engaged through mainstream platforms. This requires sufficient time to be allocated to building relationships with community organisations.
Recommendation 9:
Invest funding to support and expand YACVic’s Youth Participation Practice Network (YPPN) to empower members with knowledge, skills and confidence in facilitating youth participation – including stronger engagement from the Office for Youth (OfY) at the YPPN meetings.
Recommendation 10:
Engage platform – Strengthen youth-friendly channels on Engage, including language, accessibility and format of engagement opportunities, co-designed with young people. Provide support for OfY to promote opportunities to the youth sector and community organisations.
Recommendation 11:
Leverage local council resources to increase youth engagement. YACVic recommends the government dedicate funding to establish best-practice processes for youth engagement across local councils. This could be done by expanding YERP – Youth Engagement Resource Platform with dedicated articles for local councils.
Further resources on Youth Participation
- Youth Engagement Resource Platform (YERP): This is a comprehensive resource funded by the Victorian Government launched in late 2024, co-designed with 10 young people, following extensive consultation with young people and the youth sector. It provides best practice advice on youth participation (involving young people in decision-making processes). Relevant resources to this Inquiry include:
- Youth participation: getting started – including why involving young people is important; youth participation 101; how to involve young people; why hire young people; and youth participation models.
- Youth participation: level up – including paying young people; transparency; how to invite meaningful feedback from young people; organisational advice (including for the Government); and approaching evaluations.
- Youth participation in action – including creating a Youth Advisory Group; how to run a consultation with young people; and why and how to have young people on interview panels and boards.
- Diversity and inclusion – including consulting First Nations young people and cultural safety; engaging disabled young people and access needs (creating an access key and a social script); and creating accessible and inclusive spaces.
- Youth Participation Practice Network (YPPN): YACVic convenes and coordinates a thriving network of over 700 Victorian professionals who are committed to empowering young people through best practice youth participation, engagement and supporting the voices of young people.
- 'A seat at the table': Young People and Disaster Recovery and Fact Sheet: Engaging, Including and Consulting with Young People: This is a guide to meaningful Youth Engagement, Participation, and Inclusion.
- Future Proof: Young People, Disaster Recovery and (Re)building Communities: A report on the outcomes of YACVic Rural’s ‘Future Proof’ project, with funding to develop a Youth Advisory Group and supporting the participation and input of 183 young people in the project’s decision-making.
- Code of Ethical Practice for the Victorian Youth Sector: This document outlines the ethical practices and responsibilities of youth workers in Victoria, centring the rights of young people as the primary consideration in decision-making. In 2023-24 the Office for Youth funded a revision of the Code, co-designed with young people and the youth sector, which will be available in July 2025.
References
- McHale R, Brennan N, Boon B, Richardson E, Rossetto A, Christine R. Annual Youth Survey Report 2024 [Internet]. Sydney (AU): Mission Australia; 2024 [cited 2025 Jun 6]. Available from: https://www.missionaustralia.com.au/what-we-do/research-impact-policy-advocacy/youth-survey
- Ammassari S, McDonnell D, i Coma F. 47% of Gen Z mainly vote to avoid a fine. It’s a sign of younger Australians’ discontent with democracy [Internet]. Aus: The Conversation; 2025 Apr 7 [cited 2025 Jun 6]. Available from: http://theconversation.com/47-of-gen-z-mainly-vote-to-avoid-a-fine-its-a-sign-of-younger-australians-discontent-with-democracy-253120
- Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights. Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 12 [Internet]. United Nations; 1989 Nov 20 [cited 2025 Jun 6]. Available from: https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child
- International Association for Public Participation (IAP2). IAP2 Public Participation Spectrum [Internet]. IAP2; 2019 [cited 2025 Jun 6]. Available from: https://www.iap2.org/mpage/Home
- Youth Affairs Council Victoria. From participant to leader. Melbourne (Aus): Youth Affairs Council Victoria: 2024 [cited 2025 Jun 6]. Available from: https://www.yacvic.org.au/yerp/lived-experience-youth-work/participant-to-leader-transition/