Together For Humanity National Youth Summit 2026

G’day everyone,

I'd like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we meet today and pay my respects to Elders past and present.

There are students here from 12 schools across South Australia, including from public schools, Catholic schools and independent schools.

I want to congratulate all of you on being selected to represent your schools today.

I want to thank CEO of Together for Humanity, Annette Schneider.

Founder, Rabbi Zalman Kastel.

Chair of the Board of Together for Humanity, Phil Lambert and President Madenia Abdurahman.

I also want to thank the Abraham Institute.

I’d also like to acknowledge South Australian Minister for Education, Lucy Hood and her colleagues.

Australia is the best country in the world.

One of the reasons for that is that we are made up of people from all around the world.

People from different backgrounds.

Different faiths.

Different cultures.

People with different stories.

Living together.

Learning from each other.

Not every country is like that.

We weren’t always like that.

I was born in 1972.

At that time the last remnants of the White Australia Policy still existed.

Back then, only about one per cent of Australians could trace their ancestry back to a place other than Europe.

Australia is a very different country today.

You just have to look around to see that.

Today's theme is Creating the Community We Want.

And I want to talk to you about that.

Communities don't just happen.

They're created and they’re built through the choices we make every day.

By how we treat each other.

By how well we listen to one another.

Whether we even see each other.

We can be a multicultural country and still not really know each other.

Think about it for a second.

A lot of us tend to live in our own little bubble.

Most of our friends are like us. Similar background. Similar age. Similar interests.

There aren’t many places where we break out of that bubble.

Work is one.

School is another.

Schools can’t do everything to stop hate from forming, but they can help.

Hate comes from fear, and fear comes from ignorance.

The more we know each other, and the more we understand each other, the harder it is to hate one another.

That's what Together for Humanity is all about.

I said I was born in 1972 in a very different country to the one we are today.

I went to school in Cabramatta in Western Sydney with a lot of kids who were refugees from South East Asia and migrants from every other part of the world.

They were the kids in my classroom.

And they are still my friends.

They helped make me the person I am.

Today is about bringing us all together and helping understand each other a little bit better.

You are also here because you are leaders.

We want to hear your ideas and your experiences.

Because it’s people like you who will help us build the sort of country we get to become.

The sort of country we want to be.

And it’s organisations like Together for Humanity and the Abraham Institute that will help us do this too.

Have a fantastic Summit.