We may wring our hands about the Moomba mayhem of last weekend, but governments have been asleep at the wheel on the issue of youth engagement
The Moomba mayhem on Melbourne streets last weekend has produced the predictable and understandable law-and-order response from politicians and police: smash the ethnic gangs, throw the book at them and lock them up.
With young Sudanese and Somali migrants, Australia faces a new test for maintaining its international reputation as a successful melting pot for successive waves of invited migration.
Each past stream of migrants, whether they were Vietnamese, Greek or Italian, presented issues for authorities to ensure these families and their young people could find a place and thrive in Australian life. This should be no different for Sudanese, Afghan or Somalian families and their young people. However, many have also come from regimes where authorities were also corrupt and violent leaving the respect in authority as eroded, shaded and mistrusted. Many have had to fend for themselves in shambolic refugee camps and many have seen their families butchered or starved to death.
As we work to show that Australia is different and that there is unlimited opportunity here, we must also understand that some will hold suspicions that are deep-seated and long-held. We must be patient and useful.
In one way we should not be surprised by the scenes witnessed at Moomba. Many leaders have been warning authorities of unrest and disquiet for some time. Yet actions to engage, reach out and listen to these young people have been spasmodic and flimsy.
The scenes witnessed at the weekend may be totally unacceptable and out of order, but they are also actions that are sending us a message in a way that, though chaotic and incoherent, is also clear. Gang activity is a language for young people. They are telling us they feel disenfranchised, bored, angry … “We don’t see opportunity, jobs, pathways … We don’t see a plan for us.”
A gang gives a young person what is missing: a bond, an identity or being a part of something that they feel attachment to.
Locking them up and getting them sent to compulsory diversion programs may be one way of dealing with the problem. But it’s not the only way, not the best way, and it’s certainly not the most efficient or cheapest way.
We need to step in much earlier. The work that governments, community organisations and police do to help migrants settle in Australia is commendable, but it is nowhere near enough. If we were prepared to invest only a fraction in migrant youth programs against what we invest in our ever-increasing law and order budget we would have fewer problems and more productive communities.
Yet governments have become increasingly stingy when it comes to investing in young people. The lack of interest over the past decade by state and federal governments on youth-oriented policy is obvious to all but the politician.
We may wring our hands now about these out-of-control youth, but governments have been asleep at the wheel on this one for too long. The premier, Daniel Andrews, showed promise on these issues in his response to last year’s incidents in Melbourne’s south east but needs to deliver here.
Two previous premiers, Jeff Kennett and Steve Bracks, understood the problems of youth, particularly suicide and drugs. They sought considered advice from a range of experts, often through a front-on public taskforce approach to bring direct effort and resources to these problems of the day.
These days, the challenges faced by youth are far more complex, fast-moving and dangerous than those faced by previous generations. When we bemoan their supposed lack of resilience or “toughness”, we forget that it was much easier in our day, not harder.
Our youth problems are not just confined to ethnic-based gangs. Rising unemployment threatens to breed a generation of disconnected youth. Many of them risk becoming social fringe dwellers and social media allows disaffection, protest and bravado to multiply quickly, far more quickly than our capacity to respond.
However, if we think we are going to trade out of this by taking a lock-up approach to these young people, or table a locally organised youth strategy, we need to think again.
It is time to go back to a whole-of-government approach, time for a taskforce of significant weight and authority to take a measured look at ways to ensure that our young people, particularly from disadvantaged and disaffected communities, continue to grow into good citizens.
We must do better. We owe it to ourselves and our proud history of embracing migrants to do better. By all means enforce the law without fear or favour, enforce it without regard to race, colour or religion. But if we leave it there, the problem will get worse.
Paul McDonald
Read the full The Guardian article.
