http://www.thepunch.com.au/tags/youth/ Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/its-time-to-move-on-from-the-birds-and-the-bees/ I’d just started Year 7, I’d come home from school and had just eaten dinner when my Dad asked me if we could have a chat. I sat down with him in the lounge room and he started talking. Neither of us can remember the words he used to broach The Talk with me, but we can both remember my reaction. “Daaaaaaaaaaaaad!!!! I know! No, I know! No, I-know-shut-up-I-know!”. The conversation was over before it had even begun. One reason I reacted that way was because I was a know-it-all brat. Another was that I, and most of the kids I knew, had successfully figured out what sex was by then. If not from friends, Google or Friends, then from the awkward sex ed documentaries shown to my Year 5 class about the noble quest of a humble cartoon sperm. However, I also might’ve reacted that way because The Talk is an outdated concept. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/its-time-to-move-on-from-the-birds-and-the-bees/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/its-time-to-move-on-from-the-birds-and-the-bees/#item7990 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Ten years ago, I drove cabs for a living. I’m pretty much done telling taxi stories, but there’s one I’ll share today, as it’s more or less in the spirit of Christmas. It was the Friday before Christmas and I was working the area around Coogee/Maroubra on Sydney’s eastern suburbs beaches. It was a favourite spot to work as the fares were regular, and I stayed out of the city traffic. So in the early evening, I pick up three young guys in South Coogee. They’re 18, maybe 19, and they get in the cab carrying brown paper bags filled with booze. They say “hey driver, can we drink this in here?” http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/christmas-tale-i-got-the-bastards-and-i-got-em-good/ Ten years ago, I drove cabs for a living. I’m pretty much done telling taxi stories, but there’s one I’ll share today, as it’s more or less in the spirit of Christmas. It was the Friday before Christmas and I was working the area around Coogee/Maroubra on Sydney’s eastern suburbs beaches. It was a favourite spot to work as the fares were regular, and I stayed out of the city traffic. So in the early evening, I pick up three young guys in South Coogee. They’re 18, maybe 19, and they get in the cab carrying brown paper bags filled with booze. They say “hey driver, can we drink this in here?” penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/christmas-tale-i-got-the-bastards-and-i-got-em-good/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/christmas-tale-i-got-the-bastards-and-i-got-em-good/#item7442 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Ten years ago, I drove cabs for a living. I’m pretty much done telling taxi stories, but there’s one I’ll share today, as it’s more or less in the spirit of Christmas. It was the Friday before Christmas and I was working the area around Coogee/Maroubra on Sydney’s eastern suburbs beaches. It was a favourite spot to work as the fares were regular, and I stayed out of the city traffic. So in the early evening, I pick up three young guys in South Coogee. They’re 18, maybe 19, and they get in the cab carrying brown paper bags filled with booze. They say “hey driver, can we drink this in here?” http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-story-most-parents-and-teens-can-afford-to-miss/ The so-called Bali Boy is back in Australia. It is only a matter of time before he turns up on the idiot box for an exclusive tell-all interview, promoted by whatever ratings-hungry network shells out the cash, as a cautionary tale which no parent and no teenager can afford to miss. It is of course a story which most Australian parents and teenagers can very much afford to miss. Most Australian parents and teenagers would not be so breathtakingly foolish as to land in a country renowned for executing the most minor of drug offenders, and immediately shell out the requisite rupiah for a bag of Balinese dope. Outside of this majority there is a disturbingly large subculture in Australia which has been brought into focus by this case. It’s a subculture which has two notable features. The first is the extent to which cannabis use has been normalised, where it is barely regarded as a drug at all but as something which most people will smoke without consequence from a young age. So much so that we wind up with the spectacle of a 14-year-old boy standing before an Indonesian court revealing that he has become addicted to the drug, right under the nose of his parents. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-story-most-parents-and-teens-can-afford-to-miss/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-story-most-parents-and-teens-can-afford-to-miss/#item7304 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Ten years ago, I drove cabs for a living. I’m pretty much done telling taxi stories, but there’s one I’ll share today, as it’s more or less in the spirit of Christmas. It was the Friday before Christmas and I was working the area around Coogee/Maroubra on Sydney’s eastern suburbs beaches. It was a favourite spot to work as the fares were regular, and I stayed out of the city traffic. So in the early evening, I pick up three young guys in South Coogee. They’re 18, maybe 19, and they get in the cab carrying brown paper bags filled with booze. They say “hey driver, can we drink this in here?” http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/A-teacher-speaks-chalk-schoolies-up-to-experience/ The last few weeks have seen the annual surge of stories talking about the dangers facing young adults celebrating the end of their compulsory schooling. Most of the headlines have been taken up with reports on the tragic fatal electrocution of a young man in Bali. However, coming close behind have been a glut of current affairs pieces, garnished with a menacing techno soundtrack, detailing the many and varied ways Australia’s sons and daughters can either have their lives ruined or cut short during Schoolies. Predictably, parents across the nation have made public their fear and reluctance to allow their offspring to go let off a little steam, far away from the stress that has been their constant companion for the last couple of years. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/A-teacher-speaks-chalk-schoolies-up-to-experience/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/A-teacher-speaks-chalk-schoolies-up-to-experience/#item7276 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Ten years ago, I drove cabs for a living. I’m pretty much done telling taxi stories, but there’s one I’ll share today, as it’s more or less in the spirit of Christmas. It was the Friday before Christmas and I was working the area around Coogee/Maroubra on Sydney’s eastern suburbs beaches. It was a favourite spot to work as the fares were regular, and I stayed out of the city traffic. So in the early evening, I pick up three young guys in South Coogee. They’re 18, maybe 19, and they get in the cab carrying brown paper bags filled with booze. They say “hey driver, can we drink this in here?” http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-kids-are-alright-tony/ Tony Abbott’s claim this week that only the “right kids” should be encouraged to stay in school misunderstands the jobs market, the needs of business and is not in the best interests of our kids. It‘s true that not all young people want or need to go to university and they shouldn’t have to. But gone are the days when young people could finish Year 10 and walk into a job or a trade without qualifications. Our economy has changed and employers increasingly desire higher levels of education and deeper levels of understanding. Think about the skills required by today’s mechanics, electricians and plumbers. Technical, computer and environmental changes mean these sorts of trades have become more complex and require a higher level of vocational skills. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-kids-are-alright-tony/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-kids-are-alright-tony/#item7277 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Ten years ago, I drove cabs for a living. I’m pretty much done telling taxi stories, but there’s one I’ll share today, as it’s more or less in the spirit of Christmas. It was the Friday before Christmas and I was working the area around Coogee/Maroubra on Sydney’s eastern suburbs beaches. It was a favourite spot to work as the fares were regular, and I stayed out of the city traffic. So in the early evening, I pick up three young guys in South Coogee. They’re 18, maybe 19, and they get in the cab carrying brown paper bags filled with booze. They say “hey driver, can we drink this in here?” http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/schoolies-hell-yeah/ On cue, the league of self-appointed moral guardians is dutifully doing the rounds, making a lot of noise about Schoolies and the imminent decay of Good Society it will precipitate. They make arbitrary claims about what constitutes “fun” and play upon the tired moral panics over young girls, binge drinking and indiscriminate sex. Why, they ask, must school-leavers celebrate the end of mandatory education by congregating near beaches and getting plastered? And why hasn’t someone – presumably the government – put a stop to all this and offered some more wholesome, healthier alternative for kids to let off steam? Well, there are plenty of alternatives, none of them popular. Schoolies is a naturally developing phenomenon and nobody is forced to participate. Year after year, thousands of friendship groups independently make the decision to head north, or south as the case may be, and enjoy being away from home, with lots of booze and lots of sex. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/schoolies-hell-yeah/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/schoolies-hell-yeah/#item7262 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Ten years ago, I drove cabs for a living. I’m pretty much done telling taxi stories, but there’s one I’ll share today, as it’s more or less in the spirit of Christmas. It was the Friday before Christmas and I was working the area around Coogee/Maroubra on Sydney’s eastern suburbs beaches. It was a favourite spot to work as the fares were regular, and I stayed out of the city traffic. So in the early evening, I pick up three young guys in South Coogee. They’re 18, maybe 19, and they get in the cab carrying brown paper bags filled with booze. They say “hey driver, can we drink this in here?” http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/schoolies-yeah-pass/ It says a lot about Australia’s binge-drinking culture that an event such as Schoolies Week - where drunken violence, date rape and death by misadventure is relatively commonplace – is regarded as a routine rite of passage for young people who in most cases aren’t even old enough to drink legally. I still have about eight years up my sleeve but as a parent I am dreading the day when my son or, especially, daughter comes to me and says: “Dad, can I go to Schoolies?” It is a nightmarish scenario for parents. You want to strike a balance between making sure your kids are safe, but not wanting to keep them so swaddled in cotton wool that they become resentful and maladjusted introverts who miss the chance to socialise and have some fun at a landmark moment in their lives. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/schoolies-yeah-pass/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/schoolies-yeah-pass/#item7257 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Ten years ago, I drove cabs for a living. I’m pretty much done telling taxi stories, but there’s one I’ll share today, as it’s more or less in the spirit of Christmas. It was the Friday before Christmas and I was working the area around Coogee/Maroubra on Sydney’s eastern suburbs beaches. It was a favourite spot to work as the fares were regular, and I stayed out of the city traffic. So in the early evening, I pick up three young guys in South Coogee. They’re 18, maybe 19, and they get in the cab carrying brown paper bags filled with booze. They say “hey driver, can we drink this in here?” http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Ill-never-forget-the-tears-the-loss-the-carnage/ Very few vivid memories remain from the morning of April 1, 2005. I was 17. The one that sticks the most was dad crying. Dad never cries. Farmers never cry. It could have been 4am, it could have been 7am. I still don’t know. All I remember was it was dark and mum and dad were standing at my bedroom door in tears. Daryl was gone. My mate. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Ill-never-forget-the-tears-the-loss-the-carnage/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Ill-never-forget-the-tears-the-loss-the-carnage/#item7201 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Ten years ago, I drove cabs for a living. I’m pretty much done telling taxi stories, but there’s one I’ll share today, as it’s more or less in the spirit of Christmas. It was the Friday before Christmas and I was working the area around Coogee/Maroubra on Sydney’s eastern suburbs beaches. It was a favourite spot to work as the fares were regular, and I stayed out of the city traffic. So in the early evening, I pick up three young guys in South Coogee. They’re 18, maybe 19, and they get in the cab carrying brown paper bags filled with booze. They say “hey driver, can we drink this in here?” http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-great-harvest-line-up-and-we-dont-mean-the-music/ Dear Harvest Festival, You have no idea how excited we were about you. What music fan wouldn’t be excited about a brand new musical festival, in the backyard of the Werribee mansion, with some of the best bands of the last 20 years? For weeks everyone was talking about your line up, but by the end of the night the only thing anyone was talking about was lining up. We should have seen the warning signs early on, when one of our friends headed off to buy everyone a beer and then didn’t come back for two hours. It took her an hour to get the tokens to buy the beer the beer and then another hour to exchange the tickets for the actual drinks. Seriously, the Gillard government could not have created a system this bad.  Obviously queues are a part of any public event, but your queues were not normal. All across Werribee Park, lines of people stretched out longer than a Led Zeppelin guitar solo. At one stage the crowd outside the bar was bigger than the entire crowd waiting to watch Mogwai, who were one of the headline acts. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-great-harvest-line-up-and-we-dont-mean-the-music/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-great-harvest-line-up-and-we-dont-mean-the-music/#item7154 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Ten years ago, I drove cabs for a living. I’m pretty much done telling taxi stories, but there’s one I’ll share today, as it’s more or less in the spirit of Christmas. It was the Friday before Christmas and I was working the area around Coogee/Maroubra on Sydney’s eastern suburbs beaches. It was a favourite spot to work as the fares were regular, and I stayed out of the city traffic. So in the early evening, I pick up three young guys in South Coogee. They’re 18, maybe 19, and they get in the cab carrying brown paper bags filled with booze. They say “hey driver, can we drink this in here?” http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/dont-hop-on-the-booze-bus-this-summer/ Few Australians navigate their teen years without heaving their guts up after a massive drinking binge. With Schoolies Week almost upon us, the focus will no doubt turn to dangerous levels of alcohol consumption in youngsters.  I hardly touch the stuff now but as a teenager, mainly to fit in with my friends, I smuggled cheap wine cask bladders into pubs and guzzled them. The aftermath was never pretty, and luckily it didn’t take long for me to realise blacking out and throwing up were not much fun. I’ve basically been a teetotaller since my early 20s. penberthyd@newsltd.com.au (David Penberthy) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/dont-hop-on-the-booze-bus-this-summer/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/dont-hop-on-the-booze-bus-this-summer/#item7149 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Ten years ago, I drove cabs for a living. I’m pretty much done telling taxi stories, but there’s one I’ll share today, as it’s more or less in the spirit of Christmas. It was the Friday before Christmas and I was working the area around Coogee/Maroubra on Sydney’s eastern suburbs beaches. It was a favourite spot to work as the fares were regular, and I stayed out of the city traffic. So in the early evening, I pick up three young guys in South Coogee. They’re 18, maybe 19, and they get in the cab carrying brown paper bags filled with booze. They say “hey driver, can we drink this in here?”