Editorial - December 2012 Network Noise

Futures Forum As most of you would be aware, the Futures Forum has been the main representation body for the NGO sector in Queensland for a number of years. Futures Forum was established to bring together the collective voice of the sector and to position the sector to work more strategically with governments and other stakeholders.

YANQ played a key role in establishing the Futures Forum and in some of its major work, including the compact with State Goverment. One of the reasons the Forum was established was because of the widely held concern that at times there is a conflict between the interest of individual peaks and the interest of the sector. This was echoed in early 2011 when Futures Forum members voted to create the position of co-chair for the Forum, as the Queensland Council of Social Services (QCOSS) had assumed the role of permanent chair. Later in 2011, YANQ was voted in by the Forum to the position of co-chair. The majority of Forum members who had voted YANQ had high expectations from YANQ to bring a level of transparency and collective decision-making to the Forum.

Over the past year, YANQ has acted on this responsibility vested in us by the community sector in Queensland. In particular, YANQ has strived to be a strong advocacy voice in the Futures Forum for small organisations, and since the March Queensland election, a strong advocate for collective action by the Futures Forum against cuts to the sector.

Bernadette Young, ABC Western Qld

Click to listen to the interview

The youth sector could soon see the most significant changes in decades - this is what the peak body representing the youth sector are warning.

In Mount Isa yesterday, Youth Affairs Network QLD held a forum for people who work with youth, to talk about the government's Youth Services Review, which has recently been announced and is currently underway. The Youth Affairs Network says that the forum is possibly one of the only chances for youth workers and young people to have an input into the review.

Though very little information about the review is available online, the government has very recently announce a number of consulation sessions across the state to be held in the next two weeks, though none in Western QLD.

The director of Youth Affairs Network QLD, Siyavash Doostkhah, says that participants at the Mount Isa forum agreed that they had many positive things to contribute to the review, and hope that the review will improve the youth sector, particularly in historically neglected areas like regional and remote Queensland.

Listen to director of Youth Affairs Network QLD, Siyavash Doostkhah, speaking on the morning of the forum, and Tracy Davis, Minister for Communities - the department conducting the review - speaking on ABC Western QLD and North West QLD earlier this morning.