The National Youth Agency: Youth Policy

- "The end of certainty": policy regime change and Australian youth policy 1983-2008 - Judith Bessant

"Like many western countries, Australia lacks a discrete or well-defined corpus of youth policy. And while youth policy can be treated in a narrow and technical way as the product of youth-specific agencies like a government Office for Youth Affairs, there is value in defining it more generally. In ways that parallel 'women's policy' or 'indigenous policy' youth policy is as frequently found in the context of other policy domains like education, health, housing, welfare and justice as in narrowly defined youth agencies. And while youth policy sometimes specifies the 12 to 15 age group, we more often see the merging of children's and youth policy - particularly in areas such as child protection and education. The complexity is compounded by Australia's tripartite constitutional division of powers and resources. For Australia has three levels of government: a national government, six state governments (and two territory governments) and hundreds of local governments with complex interlocking constitutional and fiscal relationships.