There's a war being waged in Australia - on our 4.3 million young people. You hear it in the negative and dispiriting language of our national conversation, from being told to just 'get a good job' or 'cut back on the smashed avo' as the solution to housing affordability, to Prime Minister Turnbull's assertion his cabinet is 'young at heart' when the average age of that cabinet is over 50. Young people and the issues they face are being trivialised.

And you see it in the actions of Parliament. The first shots in this war rang out five years ago, when the Youth Minister position was removed from cabinet for the first time since 1978. Then the government systematically dismantled almost all the mechanisms it had to hear from young people. In 2014 the national peak body for young people was defunded and the Office for Youth disappeared.

Youth Week has had its funding cut. Credit:Katherine Griffiths

And now it is Youth Week, although you might not know it, given the government cut its funding in 2017. It's meant to be a time when Australia celebrates the role young people play in our community, through events, art shows, awards and festivals. But every year it's getting harder to celebrate.

The issues facing young people are not going away. Far from it. The trends suggest life is getting more difficult. The youth unemployment rate sits at 13 per cent. Suicide is still the leading cause of death for those under 25. Rates of youth homelessness have jumped. We have record-low levels of housing affordability, and inaction on key environmental and social issues. Young people have been left asking themselves why nothing is changing for the better.