Narooma High School Captain, Abbey Dawson, represented the Eurobodalla Shire last week in the Y's annual Youth Parliament program.
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Ms Dawson, 18, just graduated from Narooma High School, and was one of 90 young people from across NSW chosen to participate in the week of legislative debate and decision making.
The 2021 program was postponed due to COVID from July to January 2022 and was then switched from a face-to-face program at Parliament House to virtual due to high infection rates with the Omicron variant.
"We had multiple debates over the week and it was amazing, it was so fun," said Ms Dawson.
"I was able to put my hand up for a leadership role and I got Deputy Premier from that, and at the end I was also able to put my hand up for another one and I got NSW Youth Governor."
She said the students were broken up into their electorates and were asked to bring forward a pertinent issue from their local government area.
She brought the idea of road safety as a key problem for young people in her shire, a very topical issue following last week's fatal crash in Moruya involving a 17-year-old female P-Plater.
"We thought that with so many young people dying on roads just due to a lack of knowledge around road safety needed to be addressed," said Ms Dawson.
Some of the key other issues that stuck out to her were people living in poverty and unable to access to sanitary products, and juvenile imprisonment of First Nations young people.
"To hear so many different voices throughout the event and different issues from different areas was amazing."
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Ms Dawson has been chosen to be the 'face' of the program next year, meaning she will liaise with the volunteers from the youth parliament program and be able to meet Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC QC, Governor of New South Wales.
The young student clearly has a bright future ahead of her.
She has chosen to start her degree this year in politics, philosophy and economics with a double major in politics and economics at the University of Wollongong.
She hoped to one day get a job at the Treasurer's Office.
ACM spoke to Ms Dawson while she was on the road to Canberra to purchase supplies for her dorm at the University of Wollongong in the coming semester.
She said she was a bit nervous but also excited to leave home for the first time to live on campus.