My name is Cassandra La Grazia and I live in the small regional town of Agnes Water. Unfortunately, while Agnes has seen a large increase in population over recent years, it is still very behind in terms of diversity, with different races and sexualities not fairly represented within our community. In the last couple of decades, diversity has skyrocketed to new and exciting heights thanks to the many social media platforms that have become part of our day-to-day life. Within this new era of social media, young people have been encouraged to explore and express who they are. A major part of this is discovering their sexuality as well as the inclusivity of different races, genders, and belief systems. However, in towns such as Agnes Water, these aspects of our identity are still considered foreign and can experience high prejudice. This can lead to large impacts such as a lack of inclusivity, less opportunities and people that feel unsafe to be themselves. If people are unsafe to be themselves or are stigmatised, how can our community move forward within this society and be considered strong as we continually exclude those who are different? All because of an outdated belief system.

In Agnes Water, the median age is 52 years old, and the largest demographic is white Australian. The average percentage of families with children only being 1.8%. House prices are expensive, especially in places such as Agnes where the beach is right at your doorstep. Therefore, a high number of houses are second homes for people living in more urbanised areas of Queensland. This results in younger people often being priced out of Agnes Water. With such a small representation of the younger generation, there are less new ideas and opinions, and we may be left behind as society advances into a more ‘woke’ civilisation. This heavily weighs against the new ideas of identity and expressing who we are. With the younger generation being less exposed to the new ideas of today, many towns like mine will be left in the past and diversity within our communities will not be achieved.

As wonderful a place as Agnes Water is, there are still problems within our community especially within our younger population. These include youth crime, truancy, and ultimately a lack of aspirations outside of Agnes Water. Young role models and mentors can help combat these issues by providing someone for these youth to look up to, and discourage them from ditching school and being involved in crime. They can encourage the younger generation to pursue more active roles within the community. This could mean getting a job, focusing more on school or even volunteering around the town. All of this would allow for a stronger community, with diverse young leaders guiding the way.

The youth of today are the voices of the future. It is essential to be able to hear the voices of these young leaders within our rural communities and encourage them to explore the diversity of today. This will allow for the younger generations to have role models that represent cultural and social diversities. These leaders need to be showcased so they can strengthen our communities and the ideals they represent. I believe these leaders will have a massive impact on our rural communities not only for society today but for the many generations of rural Australians to come.