Ahmarni's 2026 Youth Summit Speech
Involving Domestic Violence survivors on Rewriting the System and Embedding Education on DV across QLD
Valued, loved and safe.
"Too often people say it’s not my business, it’s not my problem. Someone else will fix it.
That is how children and people fall through the cracks.
Protecting children is everyone’s business.
We are a community and change comes when we work together.
I’m Ahmarni, I’m a survivor of Domestic Family violence.
If you haven’t noticed, Australia is in a crisis with Domestic Violence,
Last year 48 women and 16 children had their lives stolen from domestic violence.
This year so far 14 women have lost their lives and 5 children.
These lives should have been saved.
Can we not all see the system is failing?
In my experience the system failed to not only educate me on signs of domestic violence but also on who to and how to report it. The system continues to fail children.
From the age of 6 I was in a home with domestic violence. So, to me all the yelling, stuff being thrown and people being dragged across the floor was completely normal. Standing at edge of my door, waiting to see if it was bad enough for me to step in, rather than sleeping was my normal.
I thought this is what everyone’s homes are like.
What happens at home stays at home, it’s no one else’s business.
If it was a problem, would the neighbours not question it?
Wouldn’t they ask if we need help?
Would the police who came by to check in not push to ensure we were actually safe?
Did you also know it can take on average 7 attempts to leave an abusive partner. 7.
The following statistics from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, in 2025 “1 in 4 women and 1 in 14 men experienced physical and / or sexual violence from an intimate partner since, 15 years of age.”
That’s a lot of young Australians.
Can you believe that’s true?
I can. I’ve seen it.
From what I have witnessed from my friends and classmates there is a lack of education. So many of my friends have been in toxic and unsafe relationships since year 6. My best friend at the time was too scared to break up with her boyfriend at the age of 12 because he said he would take his life. She didn’t speak up on this as she didn’t have the knowledge on not only how to, but who she could go to.
As children we are scared to not only get the other person in trouble but scared, we will be in trouble for speaking out. That is where the cycle begins.
The vicious cycle of people experiencing domestic violence from a young age and not speaking out due to fear and judgement continues to repeat itself. Due to the lack of education.
A very popular topic at the moment is youth crime. How we are in a crisis. But no one wants to talk about the connection of youth crime and them living in deprived environments, without access to resources they need to thrive.
A research article from James Cook university states "Children who engaged in crimes, more than half of them experienced domestic violence”.
When children are in their developmental years, they are the most vulnerable; their brains are constantly building new neural pathways. So, when they go through traumatic experiences such as Domestic violence they need support, not punishment.
So why are we punishing children that are already struggling? Should we not making them feel valued?
Safe?
Loved?
People aren't getting the fact that it is a cycle.
What some people may think is common sense and common decency, a lot of children were not taught. It’s not fair to punish children on growing up in environments they didn’t have control in.
You want to lower the Youth crime rates, start listening to young people with lived experience, start listening to survivors of domestic violence.
What confuses me is that I can see it. I look at the kids I went to school with, and I can quite literally see why they offend. What I can’t seem to understand is that adults can’t see the fact these kids have experienced so much trauma and need support.
How does incarcerating them make them feel valued loved and safe?
How does not providing children real life education within the schooling system – such as domestic violence prevention make children feel valued, loved and safe?
What contributed to my avoidance of youth offending was access to education and insight into the trauma I experienced. By having access to education and support services such as Youth Insearch it encouraged me and taught me healthier coping mechanisms and decision-making.
To ensure we keep our children safe we need to implement education on healthy relationships and early prevention of domestic violence strategies into schools.
These topics on safe relationships, consent need to be taught from an early age and continuously built on each year for students. This will allow them to have a clear understanding, and they can be fully equipped with the skills to identify and end domestic violence.
By implementing these strategies at a young age, we give children the resources to feel empowered.
I understand we have certain programs running at the moment, but no offence they need to be revamped, and continuous. At the moment they are outdated, not engaging and run every so often.
An effective implementation would look like having relatable and engaging young people running the education sessions, they could share any lived experience they have around the topics, so the children understand the importance, rather than sitting at a desk watching a boring old PowerPoint and listening to someone that doesn’t engage, doesn’t care and is just going through the motions of what has to be done.
If we want to see real change across QLD and Australia, we need to bring young people into the conversations and we need you to take us seriously. We need to involve survivors of Domestic violence on how we can rebuild the system and meet Australians needs. Implementing prevention measures than after crisis measurements allows children to have the skills to thrive. This is how we ensure not only the children of today feel valued, loved and safe but also the future generations to come.
For any further questions, please feel free to talk to me later on today"
