Chris speaks out

By Casey Neill
The 21-year-old was selected as this year’s Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations.
“It’s an amazing privilege and a huge honour,” he said.
Chris will travel to each Australian state and territory over the next three months before heading to New York to present that nation’s youth issues to the UN.
“At the moment the New York part seems really abstract because there’s so much that has to go on before then,” he said.
He said the task ahead could be overwhelming, but he was taking it day by day.
“I can’t speak on behalf of every young Australian. Trying to do that for 6.4 million young Australians is going to be impossible,” he said.
“But I can try and do that for a very broad group.”
Chris said he was the right person for the job.
“I’m a young person, and a young person that has grown up with difference,” he said.
“I understand how some different youth cohorts and youth cultures sort of function and why things are the way they are.”
“I applied because I really appreciate people’s voices and I really enjoy advocacy.”
Chris survived a five-month, four-stage recruitment process to land the role.
He said passion got him through. He won’t receive any funding or salary and is about $15,000 from his $45,000 target to fund his travel and other expenses.
“It’s an insane, all-consuming experience, which is a lot of fun as well,” he said.
Chris said young people shared the same issues as adults.
“What the difference is for young people is that there doesn’t often exist the vehicles and avenues for them to voice their opinions and their perspective,” he said.
He said young people should be involved in decisions that affected them.
“It’s their rights. They’re part of the world, they should be heard too,” he said.
Chris’s first day at high school set him on his advocacy path.
“My mum said ‘Chris, go out there and make your mark’,” he said.
He soon joined the student representative council, and took a key role in promoting the 40-hour famine.
“It was a really powerful way of understanding the world and understanding what I could achieve by being part of it,” he said.
“That’s really what started me off.”
Since then he has travelled to Africa, India and Thailand to examine efforts to combat poverty, child exploitation and human trafficking.
He has held various leadership roles with World Vision’s youth movement Vision Generation Australia over the past six years and recently stepped aside as the national co-director.
Chris has also been involved with the Victorian Youth Affairs Council, City of Knox Youth Council, Victorian Student Representative Council, United Nations Youth Association, Youth Week Victoria and the Rotary Youth Leadership Program.
“I know that sometimes this can look like a lot of responsibility,” he said.
“But I really enjoy this and this has been an amazing youth to be involved in.”
Chris has deferred his Monash University Arts/Law student to concentrate on his role.
“A law degree really trains you to be an effective advocate,” he said.
“As long as social justice advocacy is always apart of my life I’ll be happy wherever I am.
Young people can contact Chris by sending an email to youthrep09@unya.asn.au